Here or There
by AThousandTimesMore
Summary: Miley knew that she would have to choose: either be Lilly's best friend and keep her promise, or take the chance of going beyond friendship and risk losing her best friend. Liley
1. Chapter One: Oliver's Choice

"And the winner is…"

The whole country seemed to hold its breath as the host of the highly-rated reality show, _America's Top Talent_, gave a dramatic pause before announcing the winner. The two remaining contestants, Oliver Oaken and Mellissa Warbeck, clutched each other's hands tightly as they squeezed their eyes shut, ears straining to hear who the winner would be. Hannah Montana, celebrity judge, crossed her fingers under the judging table, desperately hoping it wouldn't be…

"Oliver Oaken!"

Hannah looked over to the side of the stage where her best friend, Lola Luftnagle, was standing. The purple-haired girl gave Hannah a sad smile before turning away and walking backstage. The pop star wanted to run after her, pull her in her arms, and tell her everything was going to be okay, but at the moment, everyone in the building was celebrating Oliver's win.

Oliver was hugging Melissa, then he was jumping up and down on the stage, then he was speaking into the microphone, the grin on his face getting larger and larger with every passing second. Everyone quieted down as they waited for him to speak.

"I can't believe this is happening!" he said excitedly, his eyes shining. "This has to be the best thing that has ever happened to me! I want to say thank you to Byron and Andy for being awesome judges, all the people out there who voted for me, my parents for supporting me, and most of all, Hannah Montana for being such an inspiration!"

There was more cheering and Hannah winced. The host of the show took the microphone back from Oliver and faced the judge panel. "Hannah, come on up here and perform your song!" he yelled, and the building rumbled with the cheers, foot stomping, and hand clapping from the audience.

The blonde stood up, plastering a smile to her face, and jogged up onto the stage. Grabbing the microphone the host held out to her, she faced the audience. "Congratulations, Oliver, you really deserved it!" she said, and Oliver's grin grew wider, if that was even possible. He was now sitting in the audience with his parents. Lola was nowhere to be seen. Or Lilly. Hannah felt a stab of sorrow hit her and struggled to hide it.

"This song is, as usual, dedicated to my best friend, Lola Luftnagle," Hannah said as the opening notes of _True Friend_ started to play. "Because she's always there for me when I fall. And today, it's also dedicated to Oliver Oaken." She hoped that the song would remind him that fame isn't everything, but that friends are the best. As she glanced over at him halfway through the song, she realized that the meaning went right over his head, because he was already signing pictures for the people around him and not even paying attention to her performance.

* * *

Miley walked up to her house from the limo, her Hannah wig in her hand. Lilly was sitting in the chair on her deck, her purple wig in her hand and tears running down her face. The brunette sat down next to her and put a hand on her leg, making the blonde look up.

"Hey, I'm sorry," Miley whispered.

"It's okay," Lilly sniffled. "I…I just saw the look on his face and I knew…I knew that everything else in his mind just sort of got wiped out at that moment and…I'm afraid, Miley, that he's going to leave me. It's like…it's like being offered a steak and a piece of fat. What are you going to take? The steak, of course. It's like his career is the steak and I'm the piece of fat. What's he going to choose? His career."

"You don't know that," Miley said gently, although she felt like she was lying through her teeth. She pretty much knew that if Lilly told Oliver that he had to choose between her and his career, he would choose his career.

"Don't lie to me," Lilly murmured. "I mean, did he thank either of us while he was up there on stage? No, he just thanked Hannah Montana, and she doesn't even really count because she wasn't the person standing by and supporting you the whole time. It was the two of us, Miley, not her. Not the judges. Not even the audience and the people who voted for him. We were there for him when he thought he was going to lose, we were with him the whole time."

Miley put an arm around Lilly's shoulders and pulled her close. "Everything's going to be okay," she whispered. "If things don't work out, I promise that I'll be here for you. I'll be here for you no matter what."

"Thanks, Miles," Lilly whispered, leaning into Miley.

Miley looked up as Oliver walked into her room, halting her comforting of Lilly. It had been two hours since she had gotten home and Lilly had started freaking out, thinking that Oliver was just going to abandon her without even saying goodbye. She had told her that that wasn't true and that he was coming as soon as he could. After an hour and a half, Lilly had fallen asleep.

"We need to talk," Miley said quietly. She carefully extracted herself from Lilly's grip, careful not to wake the sleeping blonde up. Giving Lilly one last glance, she motioned for Oliver to leave the room before her, quietly closing the door behind her.

"What's going on?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me?" Miley said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well, I have no idea what you're talking about," Oliver said.

"How about how you haven't spent very much time with Lilly since _America's Top Talent_ began?" Miley asked. "She thinks that you're going to break up with her for your career. And while I may be both of your friends, I have to agree with Lilly on this one. You've been acting like a complete jerk."

"Hey, what about you and your Hannah Montana thing?" Oliver said defensively. "You're doing the same thing…"

"No, I'm not, because I've included both you and Lilly in that, because you guys are my best friends and I don't want to keep that from you," Miley said. "And don't you dare turn this conversation around. This problem isn't occurring because of me."

"How long did you plan on going without telling us about Hannah?" Oliver asked.

"You know what, there was a reason why I didn't tell you guys, and that's because I was scared," Miley said. "You have no right to bring something like that up, especially in the current circumstances. I explained it to both of you guys, and I wasn't ignoring you guys like you're ignoring Lilly and I."

"I'm not ignoring you guys," Oliver protested.

"So not thanking your girlfriend and best friend when you just won _America's Top Talent_ isn't ignoring us?" Miley asked. "Telling us that you're going to hang out with us for our usual day at the beach and then not showing up isn't ignoring us? Not answering any of our calls is not ignoring us? Asking Lilly out to an expensive restaurant and getting her all hyped up for a date only to disappoint her by not showing is not ignoring us?"

"Miley, it's…"

"Oliver?"

Both Miley and Oliver looked over to see Lilly standing at the top of the stairs with a happy look on her face. She ran down the stairs and jumped into Oliver's arms, squealing at the top of her lungs. "Oh my God, congratulations!" she yelled, pulling back from him and kissing him full on the mouth. "You were amazing!"

"Thanks!" he said, grinning down at her. "And guess what? I have some big news!"

"What is it?" Lilly asked happily, but Miley could see the fear in her eyes, detect that small amount of dread in her voice.

"I'm going on tour!"

Both Lilly and Miley stared at him, Lilly in shock and Miley in disbelief.

"That's…that's great!" Lilly said unconvincingly. "How long after graduation are you leaving?"

"After graduation, are you kidding?" Oliver asked. "I'm having a meeting tomorrow to finish scheduling the tour and work out the rest of the details. There's going to be a tutor coming with me. And I'm leaving next Saturday."

"What?" Lilly said, stepping back as her eyes filled with tears.

"This is what I'm talking about, Oliver," Miley snapped. "You don't consider other people. You didn't even pause to ask our opinion on this. We're your best friends, Oliver. Lilly is your freaking girlfriend!"

"We can do a long distance relationship," Oliver said, taking Lilly's hands in his own.

"No, we can't, you know we can't, Oliver," Lilly said, pulling her hands out of Oliver's and stepping away from him again. "I can't even go on vacation without missing you. You aren't going to come back any time soon. How long is your tour going to be?"

"Six months, but…"

"But what?" Lilly asked, tears starting to stream down her face. "You're going to come home for the weekends? How about the holidays? How about even once a month? No, you're…you're going to have to make a choice. It's either me…or your career."

Oliver looked at her in shock. "Come on, Lilly," he said after a moment. "You really aren't going to make me do this, are you? You know I'm going to choose my career."

Lilly stepped away from Oliver, her mouth hanging open in shock. She shook her head and took another step back, right into Miley's arms. Turning, the blonde buried her face in Miley's shoulder as sobs started to wrack her body. Oliver had an expression on his face that showed that he didn't really care how his statement had affected Lilly.

"I hope you're happy with yourself," Miley growled, making Oliver step back from the venom in her voice. "You are the most heartless, selfish, obnoxious person I've ever met in my life. I want you to get out of my house and stay out. If I ever see you again, I'm going to kick your butt all the way to China, do you understand?"

"You can't do that," Oliver said. "I'm a celebrity and I'll have you sued."

"Did you _really_ just say that?" Miley asked, disbelief written all over her face. "Look at yourself, Oliver. You've changed. The old Oliver would have never even thought about saying that to one of his best friends. I never thought that fame would have gotten to you this much, especially not this fast. But I guess I was wrong. Let me tell you something, Oliver Oaken. You will _never_ be holding a concert with Hannah Montana, even if I have to quit in order to avoid it. You're the meanest, most despicable, heartless… God, I can't even come up with words to explain it! Oh, I hate you! Get out of here! Get out!"

He stepped back once in surprise when she yelled at him then ran out of the house when she gave him a glare that would have killed him if looks could kill. The door slammed shut behind him and Lilly started to sob even harder. Miley clutched the blonde to her chest, rocking her back and forth as she tried to calm her down.

She was going to kill Oliver.

* * *

Miley flipped the pancakes on the griddle and turned when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Lilly stumbled towards the kitchen, leaning heavily on the counter with one hand as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes with the other hand. The brunette stepped forward, placing a gentle hand on Lilly's back and looking at her sympathetically.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" she asked softly.

"Crappy," Lilly mumbled. "You made pancakes?"

"Yeah, do you want some?" Miley asked. "I made your favorite, chocolate chip. And we have whipped cream, strawberries, chocolate sauce, and more chocolate chips for toppings. Or just plain maple syrup if you want. Here, I'll get the stuff out for you, why don't you go sit at the table?"

She sat Lilly down at the table, checked the pancakes, and then went to the fridge to get everything out for the blonde. This was something she only did for Lilly on special occasions, like on her birthday or when she had an especially hard breakup. Whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate sauce on pancakes were some of Lilly's favorite things and usually calmed her down enough so Miley could talk everything out with her.

"There you go," Miley said, setting all the toppings down in front of Lilly along with a large stack of chocolate chip pancakes. Lilly reached for the whipped cream, squirting it on top of the stack while Miley cut up some of the strawberries and dropped them on top. Finally, she topped it off with chocolate chips and drizzled chocolate syrup over everything before taking a knife and fork and digging in. Miley noticed that she didn't eat with as much vigor as she usually did.

Miley flipped the pancakes onto a plate and poured a new batch onto the griddle, sprinkling chocolate chips on top of the batter that sizzled as it cooked. She turned towards Lilly, watching as the blonde morosely put forkfuls full of pancake into her mouth. She hated seeing her best friend like this, and she hadn't seen her moping around like this in over two years since she had started dating Oliver. And now the boy had broken her heart.

"Do you want more?" Miley asked when Lilly had finished cleaning her plate. The blonde nodded and Miley put another stack of pancakes on her plate, watching as she topped it with the sugary toppings and started to eat it. It was so wrong that Lilly felt like this, especially when Oliver had done something so horrible to her.

"Hey, do you want to talk about it?" Miley asked gently as she sat down next to Lilly.

"I… I just thought that he loved me," Lilly whispered. "There was this thought in my head that no matter what happened, he was always going to be there for me, and now… now his career means more and…."

She leaned into Miley, who put an arm around her shoulders as she sobbed. "Shhh, it's going to be okay," she whispered. "If he's going to choose a stupid singing career over you, then obviously he's not worth it. He's an idiot for not seeing that you're better than a singing career like that. You're amazing, Lilly."

"Would you leave me for your career?" Lilly whimpered.

The brunette sighed, pulling Lilly closer. "Of course I wouldn't," she murmured. "And if I really had to leave, I would ask you to go. If your mom didn't let you go, then I would have to hire someone to kidnap you so you could come with me. I would never, ever leave you, Lilly. You're my best friend and I love you too much to do that to you."

"Thanks, Miles," Lilly sniffled, snuggling into the brunette. "I love you, too."

Miley's heart fluttered when she heard Lilly say those words and she blushed in embarrassment. She had no idea why she would be excited when Lilly would say something like that and she knew that she shouldn't think about Lilly like that. But she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as Lilly sobbed in her arms. Her job was to comfort her best friend, and that's what she was going to do.

_**I give all the credit for the idea of this story to Freudian Slips Cause Problems. It's going to be twelve chapters long, like the last season of the show. Look at it as a sort of final season for Liley. I'm sorry I didn't update for so long. I'm not even going to try to explain myself away. Review please.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	2. Chapter Two: Strange Feelings

_**Here's the next chapter. Sorry for the delay.**_

"Why in the world did I ever agree to this?" Miley grumbled to herself. It was five-thirty in the morning and she was standing on the beach in a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. Usually she wouldn't get up so early on a day that she had off from school, but she had managed to drag herself out of bed for Lilly's sake.

Ever since Oliver had left four weeks before, Miley had been going with Lilly to the beach every morning because she wanted someone to go surfing with her. Miley had refused to make a fool out of herself and surf, but she had promised that she would at least stay on the beach and watch Lilly.

Sighing, sat down on the blanket she had set out on the sand and opened her guitar case. As long as she was going to be up this early, she might as well try to get something done. She clicked on the flashlight she had brought with her and set it on the blanket so the light illuminated a page of her song notebook. Lilly might be able to surf in the dim lighting but Miley most certainly could not write songs.

She watched Lilly stand up on her board as a wave approached and a smile flitted across her face when the blonde began to ride out the wave. Looking back down at her notebook, she started to write. A few minutes later, she was strumming her guitar and quietly humming the lyrics to herself. Stopping when something wasn't right, she quickly crossed out a word in her notebook and jotted something down, once again strumming her guitar and humming to herself.

"Hey."

Miley looked up to see Lilly standing over her, water dripping from her body and her surfboard sticking upright in the sand. The brunette rubbed her eyes tiredly. She hadn't noticed the passing time because she had been so involved in writing this song. Once she got inspiration, nothing could stop her.

"Is it seven already?" she mumbled, gently setting her guitar in its case and stretching. Her back cracked and she winced. Lilly laughed.

"Did you get carried away in your daydreams again?" the blonde asked, grabbing a towel off the pile they had brought with them and quickly drying off. She squeezed the water out of her braid and quickly stripped off her wetsuit to reveal a white bikini underneath. Miley's breath caught in her throat and she quickly looked away so Lilly wouldn't catch her staring.

"No, I, um, I just got some inspiration," Miley said quickly. "Do you wanna hear it?"

"Of course I do!" Lilly exclaimed, sitting down next to Miley. The brunette tried to ignore the closeness of the blonde and reached for her guitar, placing the strap over her shoulder and stroking the wood lovingly before pulling her song notebook closer to her.

"Um, it isn't finished yet, I only have a couple verses, and I might scrap them," Miley whispered hesitantly. She glanced over at Lilly and, seeing an eager expression on the blonde's face, began.

_Standing on the edge_

_Waiting for a sign_

_To dive to depths below_

_Throw away my life_

_Searching for the one_

_Who will make me whole_

_Fill up my heart_

_Complete my soul_

_Watching vultures circle_

_Diving to the ground_

_Devouring those before me_

_A fate to which I'm bound_

The last note was short and staccato. It wasn't meant to be happy, and when she looked at Lilly, she saw that the blonde was scared. Of what, Miley didn't know, but she knew that this, her, the song, had been the cause of it. She looked away, her cheeks flushing red as she waited for Lilly's verdict.

"Miley?" Lilly whispered.

The brunette looked up into Lilly's eyes.

"That's not a Hannah song, is it?" Lilly asked gently, and Miley shook her head no. "I think it was beautiful."

"Really?" Miley asked hopefully, her eyes lighting up.

"Of course," Lilly laughed. She sobered. "It's just… what inspired that? What's making you so sad? You usually don't write stuff like that. Not that I don't like it! I just… I'm worried about you, Miley. It seems like ever since Oliver left…."

"Oh, no, Lilly, no," Miley said quickly, putting her guitar back in its case and turning to face Lilly fully. "No, Lilly, this isn't because of you and Oliver. I promise." That was a lie. "Everyone goes through stuff like this. Remember how you were before you started dating Oliver? You kept moping around all the time because you thought that you'd never get a boyfriend who'd love you. This is the same thing. I just have a different way of expressing myself."

Lilly looked at her doubtfully. "Are you sure?" she asked uncertainly.

"Positive," Miley answered with a smile. "Now how about we pack everything up and head back to my house? My dad is making French toast and you know that as soon as Jackson gets up, it's gonna be gone."

She watched as Lilly quickly stood up, gathering up the towels and putting them in the beach bag Miley had brought with her. Slowly, she stood up and got off the blanket, closing her guitar case and notebook and picking them up along with her flashlight so Lilly could shake the blanket out and put it in the beach bag with everything else. Sand flew everywhere as Lilly shook the blanket out and Miley squeezed her eyes shut as a few grains flew into her eyes. A few tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes.

"Oh my God, Miley, I'm so sorry," Lilly said quickly, and Miley opened her eyes to see Lilly standing right in front of her, a worried and apologetic expression on her face. "I really didn't mean to."

"Its fine," Miley gasped, rubbing her eyes as she tried to get the sand out of her eyes. "Really, its fine, I'll be okay." Lilly looked at her with a confused expression on her face before she nodded slowly and backed away. The blonde picked up the blanket again, careful to walk farther down the beach and shake it out before folding it up and putting it in the beach bag.

They walked up the beach side by side, but they were both quiet. Miley wasn't sure why, because almost every other day she had come to the beach with Lilly, the blonde had babbled either about how good the waves were or how bad the waves were. Sometimes she commented on the cute boys who were just arriving with surfboards and tousled hair that made it apparent that they had just gotten out of bed, but that usually didn't happen. Ever since Oliver, Lilly had been more reserved about the boys she commented on.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Lilly finally asked as they approached Miley's house.

"Yeah, why?" the brunette asked, stopping and facing Lilly. The blonde shifted uncomfortably.

"It's just… you've been getting up early for me every time I want to go surfing, and then you've been staying up late with me for sleepovers, there was the song back there on the beach, and you haven't been freaking out at me as much," she explained quietly, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. "Like, when I shook out that blanket all over you, you would have normally freaked out at me, but you just… said it was fine. You've been acting kind of weird lately, Miley."

"Have I really?" Miley asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Lilly nodded.

"I really hadn't noticed," Miley shrugged. "I mean, I get up early and stay up late with you because you're my best friend and you would do the same for me. And like I said about the song, it's just a phase, probably. It's how I express myself. As for not freaking out at you… well, it really wasn't your fault, was it? It was an honest mistake."

Lilly nodded slowly. "I guess it was," she conceded.

"Now come on, I'm hungry and I think I can hear that French toast calling to me," Miley said with a grin, grabbing Lilly by the hand and pulling her towards the house. Lilly followed, propping her surfboard up against the deck when they got there and running up the stairs after Miley. Miley watched as Lilly passed her and rushed into the kitchen to the large plate of French toast that had been set at her usual spot at the kitchen table.

Her blonde best friend had a point. Now that she thought about it, she really had changed a lot ever since Oliver had left. She had brought her grades up, many people had commented on how much she had improved in her singing and dancing as Hannah, and she hadn't been snapping at Lilly, her dad, or Jackson as much. She had no idea why she had changed so much, but as long as the changes weren't bad, she would take them.

"Hey, Miles, are you gonna stand there all day watching me eat or are you gonna come over here and eat yourself?" Lilly called across the living room. Miley smiled at her, set her things on top of the piano, and went into the kitchen. The questions and the wondering could wait until later.

* * *

"Hey, bud, wake up."

Miley stirred, turning over to see her dad standing over her. She glanced over at her nightstand to see that it was two in the morning. Sighing, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. "What is it?" she grumbled. "If Hannah's album just went platinum, I'm gonna be really mad. That could have waited until morning."

"No, Miley, it's Lilly," her dad said, and her heart froze. He would only wake her up about Lilly if something bad had happened. "She was sleepwalking and she fell down the stairs. Her mom called 911 and an ambulance came to take her to the hospital. She should be fine, but her mom thought that you might want to know so you wouldn't be waiting for her to come by here tomorrow to walk to school with her."

But Miley was already out of her bed, pulling a pair of sweatpants on over her pajama shorts and searching through her dresser drawer for a clean bra. She whipped off her shirt and her dad groaned, shielding his eyes as she pulled a pink sports bra on and put a t-shirt on over it. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Miley demanded, turning to her dad. "Come on, Lilly's in the hospital and I'm her best friend. I should already be there. I should have been there as soon as she got there."

"Miles…."

"Dad, please," she begged. "I promise I'll go to school tomorrow morning without complaining. But Lilly needs me."

"Fine," he sighed, and Miley slipped on a pair of flip flops before she ran downstairs.

"Come on, Daddy!" she yelled. He shook his head and followed her.

* * *

"It's going to be on the left, and don't run or you're going to end up tripping and falling, then _you'll_ be the one in the hospital bed while Lilly comes and visits you at three o'clock in the morning." Miley ignored her dad as the elevator doors opened and she quickly walked out, turning left into a long, white hallway with doors on both sides. Every couple doors, there was a nurse's station where a young man or woman was typing quickly on a computer or filling out some forms in a manila folder.

Finally, she came to room 304, which was the room number she had gotten down at the receptionist desk when they had first come in. Mrs. Truscott was sitting just outside, engrossed in a book, but Miley could see the wrinkles of worry around her eyes and mouth. When Miley stopped in front of her, Mrs. Truscott looked up in surprise.

"Miley?" she whispered, standing up. "I didn't… when I called your father, I didn't mean for you to come all the way out here this early in the morning. I just wanted to let you know that Lilly wouldn't be dropping by tomorrow morning to walk to school with you."

"Hey, she's my best friend," Miley smiled, shrugging. "What sort of best friend would I be if I just went back to sleep after my dad told me that she was in the hospital? Is it okay if I go in or are the doctors in there or something?"

"You can go on in," Mrs. Truscott murmured tiredly as she sat back down in her chair. "Just don't wake her up if she's sleeping. The doctor said that she should get some rest."

"Okay," Miley whispered, and she went to the door, which was propped open slightly. She pulled on the handle and tiptoed inside quietly.

Lilly was lying on a hospital bed and Miley gasped when she saw the stark white bandage that had been wrapped around half of her face. Her right eye was covered by the bandage and Miley struggled to hold back the horrible thoughts of what could be under that bandage.

"Mom?" Lilly moaned.

"Uh, no, it's me, Miley," the brunette murmured, shuffling over to the side of Lilly's bed.

"Miley?" Lilly asked, surprised. She sat and up and turned to look at Miley with confusion in her eyes. "Am I dreaming again? God, this anesthesia is horrible. I'm gonna have to tell the doctor to give something else if I ever have to go to the hospital again."

"No, it's really me," Miley said, laughing quietly. "Your mom called my dad and he told me that you were sleepwalking again and this time you ended up in the hospital instead of in my bedroom." Lilly blushed and Miley hesitated before asking the question that was nagging her. "How… how bad is it?"

"Oh, not that bad, really," Lilly said cheerfully. "It's just a scratch, really, but the doctor says that it'll scar. This is gonna be so cool, though. I'm gonna look like a pirate or something. I won't even have to do much for a costume for Halloween this year!"

The brunette laughed, mostly in relief that Lilly wasn't seriously hurt. She pulled a chair away from the wall and sat down next to the hospital bed, just noticing that the TV was on and turned to some random channel with a stupid soap opera playing. Lilly bit her lip nervously and glanced between Miley and the TV.

"Why'd you come?" Lilly asked softly.

"You're my best friend," Miley said, shrugging nonchalantly, as if that would explain everything.

"Yes, I know that, you've said it a million times before," Lilly said, surprising Miley with the frustration in her voice. "But a couple months ago, you would have never gotten up at, what time did you get up? One-thirty? Two o'clock? You would have never done that because I was sleepwalking and fell down the stairs. Sure, you would have convinced your dad to let you skip school the next day so you could come see me, but you would have never been here at three o'clock in the morning. There's something going on, Miley, and I want to know what it is. Are you leaving or something? Are you trying to cheer me up before you go on some big tour and leave me just like Oliver did?"

"No, of course not!" Miley exclaimed, standing up so quickly that she knocked her chair over. "I promised you, Lilly. I promised you. And I keep my promise. I will never, ever leave you because I'm going on a tour."

"Then what's going on with you?" Lilly demanded.

The brunette sighed angrily and turned around, kicking her overturned chair. "I have no idea," she admitted. "I just… I've changed, Lilly. I don't know why, so don't expect any explanations from me. Trust me, as soon as I know, you'll be the first one I tell. But just… let me figure this out, okay?"

Everything was quiet except for the beeping of machines and the recorded laughter coming from the TV.

"I'm sorry," Miley finally whispered. "I'll go, now." She walked out of the hospital room, leaving Lilly staring after her with a confused expression on her face. Things were starting to get more complicated between the two of them, and it was all because of Miley. The brunette punched a wall in anger and a stab of pain shot through her hand and up her wrist. She ignored it, punched the wall once again, and hurried out of the hospital.

_**Sorry about the delay. My best friend was out of town for ten days and I was really bored, so I decided I'd pull out my skateboard and learned some tricks. I ended up wiping out in my driveway and bruising the bones in my hand. It was great. Not really. But I'll definitely be updating more often now. Thanks for sticking with me.**_

_**Thank you to the following people for reviewing the first chapter: Satan's Camaro, munnerz, Anti-Gravity111, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, 20kels, jacobsbabygirl01, HannahMiley1fan, AlvinFan07, JustAnotherSlowGoodbye, Azual's Flame 1415, and -7RyPtoPh4n-. You guys are awesome. And once again, extra thanks go out to Freudian Slips Cause Problems for the story idea. Without you, this definitely would not be in existence right now.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	3. Chapter Three: Hesitation

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**_

Miley watched with hollow eyes as her dad picked out one of the wrist braces off the wall of medical supplies. She had her arm cradled against her body. After three days of ignoring the pain, she had finally broken down and started crying when she had accidentally hit her hand on the table. She hadn't talked to Lilly once in those three days.

"I don't see why you just didn't come to me when this first happened," he sighed as he paid for the wrist brace. He glanced back at Miley. "Miles, honey, is something wrong?"

"I'm fine," she muttered, taking the brace from him and ripping off the packaging. She hissed as she slipped it over her wrist and strapped it on tightly. A few seconds later, her dad was kneeling in front of her and loosening the Velcro straps, making it more comfortable. She blinked back tears.

"Bud, I think that we should take you to a doctor and have your wrist looked at," he said softly. "It looks pretty bad. How did you do this again?"

"Punched a wall," Miley muttered.

He sighed, standing up and running a hand through his hair. "Come on, you aren't going to school today. I'm taking you to the hospital so you can get a cast." He glanced at her and Miley knew that he was expecting her to argue, but she just shrugged and followed him out of the store. Twenty minutes later, she was sitting in the emergency room at the hospital, waiting for her dad to finish filling out the paperwork the receptionist had given him.

Suddenly she was sitting on an exam table and a doctor was gently rotating her wrist, telling her to say when it hurt. He looked at her worriedly when she didn't say anything and said that he was going to have her hand and wrist x-rayed. Two hours later, she was sitting in front of three x-rays of her hand, each one showing that her hand was incredibly broken and she would have to get a cast.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Miley nodded for the fifth time as she got out of the car and walked into the house. Time seemed to flow ceaselessly, moment to moment, second to hour, hour to day, until her dad was carrying her into her room and tucking her in under her sheets, pressing a soft hand to her forehead, whispering "good night" to her. Then light was streaming in through the windows and she was staring up at the worried face of her father.

"Miles?" he whispered, but he was so far away. Miley just turned over on her side and went back to sleep.

Then someone was shaking her awake, telling her that she had better get her butt out of bed or else. She closed her eyes to go back to sleep, but the blankets were suddenly pulled from her body. Sitting up quickly, she saw Jackson standing at the end of her bed.

"It's time to get up," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Shrugging, she stood up and went over to her dresser, pulling out a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and starting to undress. Jackson was still in the room, but she didn't care, and he obviously didn't care, either, because he didn't leave. When she was finished getting dressed, she dropped her clothes in her hamper and sat back down on her bed, looking at Jackson expectantly.

"What's going on with you, Miles?" he sighed, sitting down next to her. "There's something not right about this whole situation. You're cooperating with me, you haven't yelled at me once in the past five days, and you've been sleeping for the past two. Plus Lilly hasn't been running around here with you, either. Did you guys get into a fight?"

"I'm fine," Miley muttered.

Jackson laughed. "Come on, Miley, don't try and give me that crap," he said, shaking his head. "Sure, you can tell Dad that you're having some 'girl issues,' but the only issue I see right here is you and Lilly. That's not something Dad would avoid talking to you about, and you know that. So you either tell me what's going on between the two of you or I'm going to go tell Dad that you two go into a fight." He waited a few seconds before sighing and getting up and walking to the door. "Fine, if it comes to this…."

"It was my fault."

Her brother paused by the door, his hand on the handle. He didn't turn and the only acknowledgement that he had heard her was the fact that he wasn't leaving the room. Miley knew that he was trying to be as impersonal as possible to make this as easy as possible for her to talk about. He knew that she didn't like to talk much about her feelings to people's faces.

"You see, when Oliver broke up with Lilly and left, I promised myself something," she continued quietly. "I promised myself that no matter what happened, I would be there for her and stick by her all the way, putting her needs in front of my own. If we both ended up falling for the same guy, she could have him, and if he broke her heart, I would break his face. Anything and everything that I did would be for her. Then… something happened."

She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, forcing her to speak the words that she had been avoiding for the past three days. "I fell in love with her," she whispered. This was the crucial moment, the place in time where she would either lose her brother, or forge a bond with him that would never be broken. She continued without pausing. "You have to understand, Jackson, I didn't mean for it to happen. I mean, if I ever fell in love with anyone, I would never want to fall for my best _girl_ friend! It just… the feelings came and I can't… I can't stop what I'm feeling."

"Hey, hey, Miles, its okay," Jackson soothed, sitting down next to her and putting an arm around her shoulders. "I'm not gonna condemn you because you fell in love with someone. That would be incredibly stupid of me. Yeah, you get on my nerves sometimes, and I know I get on yours, but I would never disown you because of your… sexual preference. I love you, Miles, and there's nothing you can do to change that."

Miley leaned into her brother's embrace, resting her head on his shoulder. "Thank you," she murmured. "But I don't know what to do. I haven't talked to Lilly in six days, and now that I've admitted it to myself… I don't know if it's going to be so easy to hide. And Daddy! What am I gonna say to Daddy?"

"One thing at a time, Miles, one thing at a time," Jackson said, rubbing her arm comfortingly. "I would suggest talking to Dad about this, first. And before you go off on a rant about how he'll never accept you, think about who we're talking about. This is the guy who didn't blink an eye when you dropped fifteen hundred dollars on a pair of shoes when you went shopping with Aunt Dolly. Of course, that might have been the fact that it was Aunt Dolly, but still. He loves you, Miley, and while it might take a little time for him to process it, he's not gonna kick you out of the house or hate you. He's always gonna love you. And some little voice in the back of your mind is telling you that right now."

"What about Lilly?" Miley asked. "I can't lose her, Jackson, I just can't. I would rather have her just as a friend than not have her at all. Yeah, it hurts when I see her and know that she'll never want to be with me like she wanted to be with Oliver, but… I can stand that. The thought of not having her in my life at all… that's something I can't live with. These last six days have been torture."

"Tell me about it," Jackson laughed. "Really, Miley, you're worried about Lilly not accepting you? Even if she doesn't like you back, she's still gonna be your best friend. Did you know that she's been over here at least every six hours, if not more often, to see if you were feeling better? There's a pile of your schoolwork down on the kitchen table. She really wants to see you."

"Wait, she's not mad at me?" Miley whispered, pulling away from Jackson and looking at him uncertainly. "I thought… but she hasn't called…."

"Dad took your phone," Jackson explained with a guilty grin. "It's been ringing so much that he took the battery out. He said that he wouldn't doubt that Lilly would find a way to make it ring even if the phone was turned off."

The brunette laughed. "There's the Miles I know," Jackson smiled. "Now how about you get yourself cleaned up and dressed so you can come down and have some breakfast. You've been in bed for three days and you've barely got any food or water in your stomach. Dad's making waffles."

Miley mumbled something. "What was that?" Jackson asked.

"I said that I need help taking a shower," Miley mumbled a little louder, her face blushing a bright red. "And I don't want you or Daddy to help me because that would just be embarrassing."

"Well… Lilly's downstairs," Jackson suggested, and Miley's eyes widened. He hurried to finish as she opened her mouth. "You could get into one of your swimming suits and she could help you wash your hair, then you could finish washing your body yourself. I'm not suggesting anything else."

"Fine," Miley sighed. "You can tell her to come up, but I'm changing first."

"Okay," Jackson said, walking over to her bedroom door. He opened it and walked out, starting to close it behind him.

"Oh, and Jackson?" Miley called after him.

He paused. "Yeah?"

She gave him a small smile. "Thanks."

"No problem, this is what big brothers are for," he replied softly. "Now go ahead and get changed so I can send Lilly up."

He shut the door behind him and Miley rummaged through her dresser as quickly as she could with one hand for a bathing suit, finally choosing one of her more modest bikinis… not that there really was ever a modest bikini in the first place. She pulled a t-shirt and shorts on with difficulty and sat on her bed waiting for Lilly. A few minutes later, there was a tentative knock on the door.

"Come in," Miley called, and the door creaked open slowly to reveal a hesitant Lilly. "Oh my God," Miley whispered.

There was a large scar running diagonally across Lilly's face from her left temple to the right side of her jaw. She stood up and stepped towards the blonde, reaching her hand out to touch the scar and quickly letting it fall back to her side when she realized what she was doing.

"It's pretty awesome, isn't it," Lilly chirped cheerfully, and suddenly all the worry that Miley had been feeling fled from her mind. Why was she so anxious? It was just Lilly. She laughed and shook her head.

"Of course you would say that," she murmured, looking down at her feet. She was starting to feel anxious again.

"Jackson said that you needed help," Lilly offered after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, um, I… could you… the cast…" Miley stuttered.

"Shower?" Lilly suggested, and Miley nodded, blushing. "Hey, it's not anything to be embarrassed about. Remember when I broke my arm and they ran out of the waterproof stuff they use for waterproof casts? I had to ask you to help me with a shower and you helped me. It was no big deal."

Miley nodded and swallowed nervously. Lilly tilted her head and looked at her carefully. "Is there something going on?" she asked softly.

"No, I… I'm just…" Miley stuttered.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Lilly asked gently, taking Miley's good hand in both of hers. Miley's hand tingled at the skin-on-skin contact, those tingles running up her arm and down her spine to the pit of her stomach. "Miley?"

"Yeah, I…" Miley breathed, her eyes wide as she stared at Lilly's perfectly-formed lips.

"Miles, are you sure you're okay?" Lilly asked, snapping her back into reality. Miley blushed when she realized that she had been staring and quickly looked down at her feet. "Come on, Miley, please tell me what's wrong. Is it something I did? I'm sorry, okay? If I…."

"No," Miley said quickly, taking Lilly by surprise. She pulled her hand out of Lilly's and rubbed her leg nervously. "It's not you. You didn't do anything wrong. It's… it's me, okay? There's some stuff going on and… I'm trying to deal with it right now?"

"Girl issues?" Lilly asked, crossing her arms over her chest and arching an eyebrow. She winced in obvious pain and Miley felt a twinge of pain somewhere deep in her chest because Lilly was hurting.

"Where did you hear that?" Miley asked defensively, trying to cross her arms, as well, but failing because of the cast. She ended up hugging herself with her good arm, making her look vulnerable.

"Your dad said that you've been holed up in here for the last three days because you said you were having 'girl problems,'" Lilly said, using air quotes. Her face softened. "Miley, I really want to know if something's wrong. I'm your best friend and I only want to help you, okay? If you want me to keep something a secret, I'll keep it a secret. Are… you aren't… you aren't, um, pregnant, are you?"

"No!" Miley yelled, her eyes widening as she took a step back from Lilly. "Where would you get an idea like that?"

Lilly physically relaxed. "I don't know," she shrugged. "You've been acting… weird lately. Almost motherly towards me. I thought maybe… well, ever since Oliver… left…. Oh my God, this is all because of Oliver, isn't it?"

Miley shook her head quickly. "No," she protested weakly.

"Yes, it is," Lilly insisted, taking a step forward. "I don't know how, but this has _something_ to do with Oliver…."

"I'm gay, okay?" Miley burst out. "Are you happy?"

The blonde stared at her, her eyes as wide as saucers. She licked her lips and her eyebrows met in the middle of her forehead. "That's… that's what this is about?" she asked, confused.

"Yes," Miley whispered, looking anywhere except at Lilly. "I… I was afraid, okay? I was scared that you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore, and I've only just realized it myself, my dad doesn't even know, and Jackson said that both of you would be okay with it…."

"Wait, you told Jackson before you told me?" Lilly asked, clearly insulted.

"I told him just before you came in here," Miley defended.

"And when were you planning on telling me?" Lilly demanded in an accusatory tone. "After you told your dad and Jake Ryan, then called Oliver up on the phone and told him, too?"

"Are we really going to get in a fight because I told Jackson before I told you?" Miley asked in disbelief. "Because if that's all this is going to be about, then I really don't want to deal with this right now. I still have to tell my dad and I'm not sure if he's going to accept and I don't think you understand how… how worrying and horrible it is to just… wake up one morning and realize all of a sudden that Hey! I'm gay!"

Lilly looked away uncomfortably. "You're right," she whispered. "I have no idea what it's like. And I'm sorry if it seems like I'm getting upset over something stupid, but… I feel like we've been drifting apart, Miley. I don't want to lose you as a friend and I feel like that's what's going to happen."

"You… you don't care that I'm gay?" Miley asked cautiously.

"No, I'm not going to stop being your friend just because you like girls," Lilly said, shaking her head and laughing softly. "You could be a leprechaun and I would still be your friend. And trust me, if you were a leprechaun, that would be just a _little_ weird for me."

Miley laughed, a large smile spreading across her face. "I don't know why I was ever worried about telling you," she said. "You're my best friend. Nothing is ever going to change that."

"Never," Lilly promised. "Now how about I help you with your shower and then we can go downstairs and eat breakfast. I'm starving."

The tingles returned as Lilly took her hand again, leading her into the bathroom. Miley quickly shed her t-shirt and shorts to reveal her bikini and blushed, but Lilly didn't seem to notice. She was already turning on the water in the shower. Lilly helped Miley wrapped her cast in towels and plastic bags before she quickly helped her wash her hair and most of her body.

Pleasant sensations ran through Miley's body as Lilly's fingers massaged her scalp and gently rinsed the soap from her hair. Gentle fingers ran a washcloth over sensitive skin and Miley shivered. Lilly didn't notice as she helped wash the suds from Miley's exposed skin. The brunette is still wearing her bikini.

After Lilly helped Miley unwrap her cast and make sure it didn't get wet, she went into the other room so the brunette could change out of her bikini into her shorts and t-shirt. She came out a few minutes later with a brush and hair tie in her hand. "I… could you brush and braid my hair?" she asked shyly.

"Yeah, of course," Lilly answered, sitting down on Miley's bed and patting the spot in front of her. Miley handed the brush and hair tie to Lilly and sat down cross-legged in front of her, squeezing her eyes shut as she waited for the blonde to tear the snarls out of her hair.

She was surprised when Lilly gently ran the brush through her hair, working out the tangles gently, her fingers gently brushing at the base of her neck before she ran the brush through her hair. Finally, when all the snarls and tangles were out of her hair, Lilly started braiding Miley's hair, her fingers brushing against sensitive skin every so often and finally pulling the braid tight and tying it with the hair tie.

"There, is that okay?" she asked. Miley nodded. "Okay, then, we're ready to go downstairs and eat breakfast. Those waffles smell really good."

They went downstairs and sat down at the kitchen table. Miley's dad placed two plates piled with waffles on the table, one in front of each of them, and they dug in. The brunette had difficulty eating her since she couldn't use her left hand, which was her dominant hand, and ended up having her dad cut them up for her so she could eat them with a fork.

"You're awfully quiet, Miles," her dad remarked. "I mean, I know that Lilly is quiet when she's eating, but you're usually all gab and go."

Miley glanced at Lilly, who gave her an encouraging nod. "Daddy, there's something I have to tell you," she whispered, and he turned away from the waffle makers to give her his attention. "You've always said that no matter what we do, who we turn out to be, or… or who we fall in love with, you'll always love us, right?"

"Yes," he answered slowly. "Is this about that Jake Ryan boy again? He isn't back in town, is he? Haven't I taught him that breaking my little girl's heart isn't acceptable?"

"No, Daddy, Jake isn't back in town and it isn't about him," Miley sighed. "I…I don't like boys. I like girls." She held her breath as she waited for his reaction.

"You like girls," he repeated slowly, staring at her. "But… you liked Leo six months ago, and Gabe LaMotte before that, then there was Jake Ryan, and…."

"Yes, Daddy, but I don't like boys," Miley interrupted softly. "I don't think I ever have, really. The only reason I liked those boys is because everyone else did and I thought it was the right thing to do. Sure, they were all good-looking, but I was never attracted to them. I think I've always been attracted to…." She stopped.

"To who?" Lilly asked eagerly.

"No one," Miley muttered, putting her head in her hands.

"Bud, if you think that I'm going to be upset with you because you like girls instead of boys, then you're wrong," her dad said slowly. "Like I've said so many times before, I love you and I'm always gonna love you. I just… it's going to be hard for me to get used to the fact that you aren't going to be running around here talking about boys anymore. It's not something that I've ever considered. Give me a little time, Bud. Just give me a little time."

"M'kay, thanks, Daddy," Miley whispered.

"Why don't you two go upstairs to your room and rest for a bit?" her dad said, putting a hand on her forehead worriedly. "You look a little peaked and I don't want you getting sick. Lilly, can you grab her laptop off the coffee table in the living room? You two can watch movies up on her bed."

Miley stood up slowly and watched as Lilly went into the living room and picked up her laptop on the coffee table. She followed the blonde up to her room and they sat down on Miley's bed, facing each other.

"Who is it you like?" Lilly asked suddenly.

"I… why does it matter?" Miley countered.

"If you don't want to tell me, all you have to do is say so," Lilly muttered, clearly hurt.

"No, Lilly, it's not that," Miley said quickly. "It's just…."

"I told you that you don't have to," Lilly snapped.

"It's you!"

They were both quiet as Miley slapped a hand over her mouth and Lilly stared at her with a shocked expression on her face. Miley slowly began to shake her head at tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes.

"Oh my God, Lilly, I'm so sorry," she whispered as she dropped her hand from her mouth and reached out to the blonde. Lilly flinched away at Miley's touch and the brunette bit her lip and retracted her hand, hurt.

"I… I have to go," Lilly whispered, standing quickly and going to Miley's door. "I'll see you later."

Miley watched Lilly leave and, when she heard the front door close, signaling that Lilly wasn't coming back, she collapsed in tears. She had just driven away her best friend.

_**I feel really bad for abandoning you guys for so long, so I'm going to go ahead and post this a little earlier than I normally would. Thank you to Anti-Gravity111, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, AlvinFan07, and XxuntouchablexX for reviewing the last chapter. You guys are awesome. And once again, all of my thanks goes to Freudian Slips Cause Problems for the story idea.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	4. Chapter Four: Message

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**_

"Hannah, how did you break your arm?"

"Will your concerts be cancelled because of this?"

"Where have you been for the last few weeks?"

"Is it true that you're dating Oliver Oaken?"

The faux-blonde pushed through the crowd of reporters to the building where she was going to be answering questions from the press. Only certain press agents were allowed inside to ask questions and those who had not been invited or had been rejected had resorted to crowding outside in hopes of getting some answers out of Hannah before or after she met with the other press agents.

Finally, she was inside the building in a small dressing room so she could gather her wits about her before she went to meet the reporters. Taking a drink from a water bottle that had thoughtfully been left on a small table, she wished that Lilly was there with her. Not Lola, but Lilly. She missed her like crazy. It had been two weeks, two long, agonizing weeks, since she had confessed her love for her blonde best friend, and there hadn't been a single moment in one of those days that she hadn't wished that she hadn't said anything.

"Hey, Bud, are you ready?" her dad asked softly. She looked up to see her dad, mustache and hat in place, standing in the doorway with her brother standing behind him. Nodding, she stood up, took one last long drink from the water bottle, and followed him out of the room and down the hallway.

"Miles, listen, don't… don't do anything stupid, okay?" Jackson whispered as they paused in front of the door that opened up into the room of reporters. "Remember everything that you're holding in your hands right now. And try to do what's best for what's the most important."

"Okay, thanks, Jackson," she whispered back, giving him a small smile.

Then her dad opened the door for her and she walked into the room, sitting down at the table that had been set up for her and looking out at the eager faces of the reporters and the flashing lights of the cameras. "Okay, um, first question?"

All of the reporters started shouting out questions and she pointed to a young, black-haired woman in the front row. The woman stood up, reading a question from her notebook. "Is it true that you're dating Oliver Oaken?" she asked. The air was filled with an expectant silence as the reporters waited for the answer.

"No," Miley spoke into the microphone. "Honestly, I don't want to associate myself with Mr. Oaken at all at this point. Yes, he's a nice guy, but he hurt one of my closest friends. I know that there's a rumor going around that we're going to do a tour together, but that isn't true, either. There was never a plan for the two of us to do a tour, and, in the foreseeable future, there never is going to be a tour. Next question." She pointed to a man in the back and he stood up.

"How did you break your arm?" he asked.

She looked down at the bright pink cast plastered on her arm. "I was upset and I punched a wall," she answered. "And no, I will not be answering questions as to why I was upset. Next question." A mousy man in the second row was next.

"Why haven't you been out in public recently?" he asked. "Where have you been?"

This was a hard one. The reporters stared at her expectantly and she let out a loud sigh. "It's because, very recently, I've lost someone very close to me," she said quietly. "No, no one has died, but… I've lost a very close friend. My closest friend. It's hit me hard because there isn't a single moment in the day when I don't think about her or wish that what happened could have gone almost any other way. And I haven't been out because it's very… difficult to function without her."

"Who is this friend?" another reporter called out. "Is it Lola?"

Miley took a deep breath. "The truth is, I'm ending my career," she announced. "I'm going to have one last concert as a sort of farewell concert, and then I'm finished."

"Miss Montana, are you not under contract?"

"What does your label have to say about this?"

"Are you going back to high school?"

"Is there anything that's pushing you to make this choice?"

"When did you decide this?"

"Will you still be making public appearances?"

"My contract ends in three weeks and I have fulfilled all requirements with the exception of one last concert, which will be my farewell concert," she answered, watching as the reporters started scribbling what she was saying down in their notepads. "My manager and I have a meeting with the label tomorrow afternoon, although I don't doubt that they'll be contacting me as soon as they hear the news. My schooling will go on as it has been. I decided this on my own and I've been working up to this for a while. And I will be making limited public appearances, if any at all."

"So this is the first time your label will be hearing about your decision to retire?"

"Yes, it is," she said. "Next question."

"Why did you decide to retire?"

"I want to get back to my roots," she replied easily. "No, I'm not going back to Tennessee, so don't bother looking for me there, but I've drifted away from who I am. From who I used to be. And I've realized that maybe I need to get away from all of this, from the fame and popularity, to get myself back. And I would really appreciate it if you would respect my privacy."

"Where is Lola?"

For the first time during the whole interview, the room was quiet. The reporters stared at her expectantly, pens and pencils poised over notepads, waiting for her to answer the question. Miley stared back at them with wide eyes, her mouth open, words at the tip of her tongue to answer, but nothing coming out.

"I think Hannah has had enough," her dad finally said, stepping in. He motioned to the men standing at the doorways, who started to herd the reporters out of the room. He was asking her questions, and Jackson was there, and Roxy, but she only had eyes for the young man who was making himself as small as possible so he would be overlooked by the men herding the reporters out. She pushed past everyone and walked towards him, sitting down next to him. He looked at her with wide eyes, obviously unsure of how to react to her immediate presence.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

"Uh, it's, um, Bryan," he stuttered.

"Bryan, can you do me a favor?" He nodded gulping loudly. She pulled a wad of bills out of her pocket, counting it out and pressing it into his hand. "There's five hundred dollars. Put in your article, right on the front page of whatever newspaper you work for, or say on air for whatever news station you work for, that I, no, that _Miley_ misses Lilly. Write that down. Miley misses Lilly. Do you have that?"

The reporter quickly scribbled it down in his notepad, circling it multiple times and putting a large star by it. He looked up directly into Miley's eyes and, for a moment, she thought that he saw right past the thin disguise she was wearing.

"Can I ask you a question?"

She nodded.

"Where _is_ Lola?"

She sighed and looked away. "To be honest, I really don't know. I'm sorry that I can't help you more. But thank you very, very much."

He nodded, scribbling something else down in his notepad as he stood up, mumbling to himself and almost bumping into the doorframe as he left. Miley felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up to see her brother standing above her, an understanding and sympathetic look on his face.

"Come on, Sis," he whispered. "Let's go home."

* * *

Miley stood in her room, looking in the mirror and running her fingers through the hair of her wig. This would most likely be the last time she would be Hannah Montana. Ever. While she knew that she was making the right choice, it was hard to comprehend that everything was going to change. Hannah had been a part of her life for years and after this concert, she would only be Miley.

There was a knock on her bedroom door and it slowly opened to reveal Jackson standing in the doorway dressed in a pair of jeans, a nice button-down shirt, and a sport jacket. He smiled at her tentatively and walked into the room, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Miley smiled back at him and turned back to the mirror, adjusting her necklace so it was perfectly centered. Her eyes traveled down her arm to the friendship bracelet Lilly had made her when they had first met and tears sprung to her eyes.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay," Jackson murmured, putting an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into a hug. "Lilly'll come back. She always does. Trust me."

"How can she come back when I broke my promise to her?"

Jackson pulled away and lifted her chin with his finger so they were staring into each other's eyes. "Listen to me, Miley," he instructed quietly. "You guys have been best friends since the first day you met, which is almost eight years. I know you tell each other everything and you can barely go twenty minutes without some form of communication. I mean, Lilly's literally sleepwalked to our house! There's no way that she's going to break off your guys' friendship. It might take a little while for her to adjust, but she'll come around."

"I told her that I like her, Jackson," Miley murmured sadly, and a look of surprise flitted across his face. "She… she probably hates me now. I mean… she probably thinks that I'm just some pervert who only became best friends with her so I could… I don't even know, Jackson. I'm so scared. I'm scared that I've lost her."

"Hey, hey, none of this," Jackson whispered, wiping away the tears that were beginning to slide down Miley's face. "Lilly is going to come back. If you begin to doubt that, then you're just going to make this a whole lot worse for yourself. You guys have been through a whole lot together and I don't think she would let something like that get between you two."

Nodding, Miley wiped at her face, grateful that she hadn't put on her makeup yet. Jackson wrapped his arms around her, engulfing her in a hug. The brunette collapsed into him, lying her head on his shoulder and trying to keep herself from crying.

"Thank you, Jackson," she whispered. There was a moment of silence. "Why can't we normally be like this? Why do we have to fight all the time?"

"Because you're my sister and I'm your brother and that's what brothers and sisters are supposed to do," Jackson answered playfully. "Besides, this house wouldn't be half as much fun if we didn't argue a little bit, would it? And Dad wouldn't have the opportunity to enjoy disciplining us."

"I guess we have to humor Daddy, don't we?" Miley murmured into Jackson's shoulder.

"What else would he have to do if he didn't have to yell at us?" Jackson asked. "Straighten his hair?" Miley laughed. "Come on, Miles, we have to get out to the limo. You don't want to be late for your last concert. And I need to get there to impress the ladies." He pulled away and looked down at her, a playful smirk on his face. Patting her on the shoulder, he turned to leave.

"Jackson?"

He stopped and turned. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"No problem, little sis."

Miley hesitated. "And Jackson?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"Love you, too, Miles."

He gently shut the door behind him and Miley looked into the mirror one last time before following him out.

* * *

"Miss Montana, there's someone here to see you. She says that she knows you."

Miley looked away from the dark TV screen, her eyes settling on the young man dressed in all black and wearing a headset. A clipboard and pencil was clutched in his left hand and his right hand rested on the doorknob of her dressing room.

"Send her in," she sighed, turning away from him. The door closed softly and her heart fluttered in hope and excitement. Maybe, just maybe… no, she couldn't get her hopes up. There was a soft knock on the door and it opened quietly.

"Miley."

The faux blonde jumped to her feet, turning quickly to see Lilly standing in front of her, the door closed behind her. For a moment, Miley didn't believe that it was really her best friend standing there, dressed in the baggy cargo shorts, one-size-too-big band t-shirt, red beat-up Vans skate shoes, and backwards black baseball hat worn over her blonde hair that was tied up in pigtails. Her skateboard was held tightly against the side of her body under her arm and a light sheen of sweat covered her face.

"Lilly?" Miley whispered, eyes wide.

The blonde licked her lips and hesitantly set her skateboard down on the ground. "I… I've been thinking," she said boldly, but Miley could tell that she was nervous by the way her eyes were always focused on something other than Miley. "I mean, not that I don't usually, but… I've started boarding again in the past couple weeks, and I… why does this have to be so hard?" She groaned and turned away from Miley, rubbing her eyes with her fists.

"Do you hate me?" Miley asked in a small voice.

"No!" she yelled, startling Miley. Lilly turned to face her. "No," she repeated in a quieter voice. "I could never hate you."

They were both quiet, awkwardly standing across from each other.

"Why now?" Miley asked finally.

"Because I miss you," Lilly answered, meeting Miley's eyes.

Both girls rushed forward, wrapping their arms around each other and holding each other tightly.

"I'm so, so sorry," Miley whispered as she buried her face in Lilly's hair. Tears were streaming down her face and leaking onto the top of Lilly's head, but at the moment, Miley didn't care if the skater saw that she was crying. For once, she let herself break down in front of her best friend instead of pretending that she was perfectly okay.

"I am, too," Lilly murmured, holding the faux blonde. Hands rough from skateboarding and landing hands-first on pavement grasped Miley's wig and gently tugged it off, dropping it on the floor. Lilly took a step back and gently loosened the hair tie in the brunette's hair and loosed her curls so they fell softly around her face. "There's the Miley I've been missing," the blonde smiled.

"What… what are you thinking?" Miley asked quietly, eyes wide in fear.

"I'm thinking that we should get out of here so we can talk where people won't walk in on us and wonder why the heck Hannah Montana has brown, curly hair," Lilly answered. "Besides, it feels weird to be in your dressing room as Lilly and not as Lola."

Miley looked around. "This is it," she murmured. "After this, Hannah's name is gonna be taken down off the door and some other pop star is going to come here before concerts with her best friend, laughing and giggling before the stagehands knock on the door for the twentieth time and tell her that if she doesn't get out on stage in twenty seconds, then the whole concert will have to be cancelled. She's gonna take a quick ten minute break between number that turns into fifteen because she ate too many of those little French pastries filled with cherries. And she's gonna come in here afterwards and fall asleep on the couch only to be woken up by her friend jumping on her and pushing her to the ground."

"Are… are you sure that you want to end all of this?" Lilly asked hesitantly. "I mean, this has been half of your life for almost eight years. It's going to be hard to adjust to not having any of this anymore."

"Yeah, but I wasn't able to be myself for half of my life," Miley explained with a small smile. "I mean, yeah, singing and performing is a part of my life that I can't live without, but I can do other things to fill in that space. There's always the school musicals, and once we get to college, there's singing groups and I can always come back as Miley and perform as myself."

"You know that… that I don't mind you being Hannah, right?" Lilly asked slowly. "If you're doing this because you think…."

"No, I'm doing this for myself," Miley interrupted. "Now how about we get out of here. I'm in the mood for some ice cream."

* * *

Miley sat across from Lilly at one of the picnic tables set up outside of Stella's, a burger joint that had been built fifty years earlier almost directly on the beach. The brunette poked her ice cream sundae with her spoon, watching as Lilly devoured her large chocolate ice cream cone.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Lilly asked eagerly, staring at Miley's mashed-up ice cream sundae. The brunette shook her head and pushed it towards the blonde, watching in amusement as Lilly started to shovel spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and nuts into her mouth. When she was finished, she pushed the plastic bowl back to Miley and burped obnoxiously.

"I saw the message on the news channel," Lilly finally said after a long period of silence. She continued when Miley didn't say anything. "How did you get that on there?"

"At the Hannah press conference a couple weeks ago," Miley answered, playing with the bracelet on her wrist. "One of the reporters tried to avoid the security guards so he could stay and ask me more questions, and I paid him to somehow get that message out to you, through the newspaper or TV station or whoever he worked for. It turns out that he the news anchor on CNN."

"How come you manage to do all these amazing things for me?" Lilly asked in an exasperated tone of voice. "You jump out of a plane so you get to see me on my birthday, you manage to convince your dad to let me live with you until my dad manages to get a bigger apartment in the school district, and you write a message to me that runs on national TV for three straight weeks."

"Don't make me answer that question," Miley murmured, looking away.

Lilly was quiet for a moment. "You… you really like me?"

"Lilly…."

"No, answer the question, Miley," Lilly demanded. "I don't want you to skirt around the question and leave me guessing about how it is between the two of us, okay? We will _always_ be friends. No matter what happens. I will _never_ let _anything_ get between the two of us. But I don't want us to be hiding things from each other, either."

The brunette sighed. "Yes," she answered quietly. "I like you. Are you happy now?"

"As more than a friend?"

"Yes, as more than a friend," Miley snapped, surprising Lilly. "Do you have to push the point, Lilly? It hurts, Lilly, it actually _hurts_. Don't push the point, because every time you ask a question, it's just gonna drive a stake deeper and deeper into my heart. If you don't ask any more questions, maybe I can get over this, okay? I'm not gonna ravage you in your sleep or sneak into the bathroom while you're taking a shower. Everything's exactly the same as it was before, except now you know."

The blonde reached out a hand, placing it on top of Miley's. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I don't know what you're going through right now, and I know that me asking questions isn't going to help, but I want to help in whatever way possible. If you want me to do something or stop doing something, go ahead and tell me. Whatever makes this easiest for you. You're my best friend and you were there for me when I was going through a rough time, and now I want to be there for you while you go through this."

"Just… just don't leave me," Miley whispered, looking into Lilly's eyes. "I can live with you not liking me, but I can't live without you as my friend."

"I'm not gonna leave you," Lilly whispered. "I promise."

_**Well, there you go. I'll have the next chapter up within the next week. I don't want to post it too soon; I want to keep you guys guessing for a little while longer! ;) Sorry guys, but I can't resist! Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: Anti-Gravity111, Satan's Camaro, AlvinFan07, joske432, IAmsterdam3, JustAnotherSlowGoodbye, dcjp, karleen3863, TheBoredOne85, .287, XxuntouchablexX, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, and Breyton2009. You guys are awesome! And once again, extra thanks to Freudian Slips Cause Problems for the story idea!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	5. Chapter Five: Crying

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**_

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Miley sat up and swung her legs out of bed. The digital alarm clock on her nightstand blinked at her, showing that it was only six o'clock in the morning. Six o'clock on the morning of her first day of her senior year. Sighing, she turned her bedside lamp on and looked around her room.

Nothing much had changed throughout her years in high school. Her room was painted a deep purple, matching curtains covering the French doors that led out to her balcony overlooking the ocean. A few framed posters were hung up and a large bulletin board was covered with pictures of her and her friends, but mostly Lilly. Her furniture had been the same for the past eight years: the dark-colored wood dresser, complete with a mirror and a set of shelves, and her matching bed, nightstands, desk, and shelves. And in a year, her room would be practically empty because she would be off to college.

Her phone beeped and she picked it up off her nightstand, looking at the screen to see that Lilly was calling her. Smiling, she flipped her phone open and pressed it to her ear. "Hey, Lilly, what's up?" she asked cheerfully.

"How the heck can you be so happy this early in the morning?" the normally happy blonde grumbled, and Miley laughed. "Don't you dare laugh at me, Miss Don't-Talk-To-Me-Until-I've-Had-At-Least-Five-Cups-Of-Coffee. It is perfectly reasonable for me to be grumpy at six o'clock in the morning when I have to go to school in an hour and a half. Why are we getting up so early, anyways?"

"Because it's our last first day of school," Miley reminded her. "And we were going to go out to breakfast this morning. Unless you just don't want to hang out with me…."

Lilly sighed. "I'll meet you at your house in half an hour," she grumbled. "But you owe me. Big time." There was a click and Miley realized that the blonde had hung up on her. Laughing to herself, Miley shook her head as she shut her phone and set it back down on her nightstand. She stood up and walked over to her closet to choose an outfit. Absentmindedly pulling out a pair of jean shorts and a tank top, she thought about how her friendship with Lilly had progressed since she had given up Hannah.

At first, they had both been a little awkward and nervous when they started hanging out. Lilly had been curious about Miley's sexuality and Miley had answered her questions hesitantly, but had quickly caught on to the fact that Lilly wasn't going to stop being her friend and started opening up a lot more about it. And Miley could tell that Lilly was hesitant to get close to Miley, both physically and emotionally, but the brunette strove to show her that she wasn't going to act any differently than before. And Lilly had come to see that, as well.

But eventually the girls had grown closer than they had been before, with Lilly spending nights over at Miley's house, or vice versa, five or six days a week. They were rarely out of each other's sight, except for when Lilly got up really early to go surfing or spent a lot of time at the skate park or when Miley went to Hannah meetings scheduled to close the final contract and make sure than all of the requirements had been met.

Giving up Hannah had been hard for Miley, at first. She had a lot of spare time on her hands and, when there was no one to spend it with, usually sat in front of her TV or laptop, watching newscasts about Hannah's career or reading fan tributes to Hannah. Finally, her father had talked to her, and Jackson had started to spend more time with her.

That had been another thing that changed dramatically since Miley had stopped being Hannah. She and Jackson had grown closer together. Miley didn't know whether it was because of the ordeal she had been through with Lilly or because her father spent less time focusing on Miley than before, but she was content with her new relationship with her brother. They spent a lot more time together, walking along the beach, going out to eat, and Miley had even let Jackson start teaching her how to surf, something that Lilly had given up on after the first five minutes of her first lesson.

Smiling to herself as she thought about her first, and last, surfing lesson with Lilly, Miley stepped into her bathroom and turned on the shower as she started to undress. She tested the shower water with her hand before stepping in, closing the curtain behind her. Her surfing lesson with Lilly had been a complete disaster. It had been two weeks after Miley had first moved to Malibu and Lilly had been really excited about her brilliant idea to teach Miley how to surf. The brunette had warned Lilly about her clumsiness, but, as usual, Lilly didn't listen.

Miley squirted some shampoo onto her hand and rubbed it into her hair, stepping under the shower spray after it was completely rubbed in to rinse her hair out.

Lilly had brilliantly thought that since she was such a good surfer, she would be an even better teacher and that any student of hers would be able to surf perfectly on her first try. Of course, exactly the opposite happened. Miley had almost immediately wiped out, although she prided herself on the fact that she was able to stand on the surfboard for approximately three and a half seconds before she was knocked off by a seven foot wave. She was knocked around in the water, hit her head on the bottom of the ocean, and had to be rescued by Lilly, who ended up giving her CPR.

Of course Lilly would have chosen a beach where a lifeguard was never present.

Shaking her head, Miley applied conditioner to her hair, brushing it out with her fingers under the spray of water. She washed her body quickly when she realized that she had been lost in her thoughts and wouldn't have much time to get ready if she prolonged her shower, grateful that she had shaved her legs the night before.

She quickly turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping her body in a towel and trying to look in the foggy mirror before ultimately giving up and walking out into her bedroom, only to run into something as soon as she set foot on carpet.

"Oof!"

"What the-?"

"_Lilly?_"

"Who else, doofus?" Lilly replied sarcastically from the floor. She had a hand held to her forehead, wincing as she stood up, and Miley wrapped her arms around her chest, glancing down to make sure that her towel covered her body adequately.

"What are you doing here?" Miley asked, horrified and slowly backing up into the bathroom.

"Well, hello to you, too, Miley," Lilly said sarcastically. "Why thank you for asking, I'm doing fine on this incredibly _early_ morning. How are you? Oh, wait, you're running late again, aren't you? Because you just stepped out of the freaking _bathroom_ in a _towel_ when you knew that your best friend was coming over!"

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Miley rushed to say as she hid her body behind the partially closed bathroom door, leaving just her head visible to her best friend. "Can, um, can you get my clothes on the bed?"

"Oh, so I'm your slave, now, too?" Lilly asked, still holding a hand to her forehead as she walked over to Miley's bed and snatched up the clothes. "Lilly, it's nice to see you, why don't you take a seat while I finish getting ready? Oh, no, Lilly, that's okay, I can walk over to my bed like a normal person and get my clothes myself."

"You're pushing it, Blondie," Miley growled, grabbing the clothes from Lilly and quickly closing the door in her face. She did her best to shut out the angry mumbles of her best friend as she quickly dressed herself and ran a brush through her hair. Deciding that she didn't want to spend time on her hair, she quickly put it up in a ponytail and went back out into her bedroom where Lilly was still muttering to herself angrily.

"Look, Lilly, I'm really sorry about how I reacted before, but you surprised me right after I got out of the shower, and it's six-thirty in the morning, and I just… it's the first day of school," Miley sighed, tossing her towel onto her bed and sitting down on the floor next to Lilly. "I'm really, really sorry."

Lilly gave her a small smile. "Me too," she whispered. "How about we forget all about this and head out to breakfast. We can waste away our last hour of freedom before our senior year officially starts."

"Sounds good to me," Miley grinned, standing up. She reached down a hand to help the blonde up and hauled her to her feet. "Now how about we get going before my dad wakes up and insists on giving us a big lecture about the responsibilities of our senior year and then starts crying cause his 'little girl is growing up?'"

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Lilly said, scrambling for the door. Miley laughed, grabbing her book bag from beside her bedroom door as she followed Lilly into the hall, downstairs, and into the driveway where Lilly's old green Volkswagen Beetle, which the blonde was insanely proud of, was parked.

The Beetle, which Lilly had named Randy (Miley had no idea why), wasn't exactly in the best condition. Miley and Lilly had been looking for a car to buy together two years earlier and Lilly had called Miley up one night after a day of fruitless looking to tell her that she had found the absolutely _perfect_ car, and that, even better, it was free. Squealing excitedly, Miley had rushed over to Lilly's house to find the beat-up Volkswagen in the driveway. And she had refused to spend any of her money to bring it back to life.

It had taken Lilly three months to scrape together the money, which she had mostly gotten from begging her parents for it, she needed to revamp the Volkswagen, which left it with peeling paint, rusty bumpers, and a radio and air-conditioning that didn't work. When Miley had pointed this out, Lilly had snapped for her to get her own car and proceeded to tell her that the heating worked perfectly fine. Miley was still trying to figure out how this was a plus in Malibu, California.

* * *

Miley and Lilly walked through the student parking lot to the high school, book bags slung over their shoulders. They had gone out for breakfast to a small, locally owned café and spent the better part of the last hour there before leaving. Miley had concluded that it was the best way to spend the last hour of their last high school summer together.

"I hope we have the same classes together," Lilly commented absentmindedly.

"With our luck, we probably won't," Miley replied, instantly bringing the mood down. She winced as Lilly glanced at her with an expression of shock on her face and bit her lip as she looked away. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for."

"It's fine," Lilly said gently. "Come on, let's get to homeroom."

They walked through the halls, shoulder-to-shoulder, and went into their homeroom, the homeroom that they'd had together for four years straight. The homeroom they'd had with Oliver for three years straight. Miley saw Lilly glance around the room and deflate when they walked in and the brunette put a comforting arm around the blonde's shoulder. Lilly shook it off, dragging her feet as she walked over to her desk and sat down.

"Lilly, we both knew that he wasn't going to show up," Miley murmured, sitting down next to her and reaching out her hand and lightly touching Lilly on the arm. "I know it hurts, but you have to get over him. I'm not saying this to be mean. I'm saying this as your best friend."

"Some best friend," Lilly snorted.

Miley retracted her arm, stung.

"No, Miley…."

"It's… it's fine," Miley muttered, standing up. "I'm… I think I'm gonna go get a drink."

"Do you want me to…?"

"I can go by myself," Miley snapped.

The blonde nodded as Miley strode out of the room, struggling to hold back her tears. She really didn't need to be seen crying on her first day of school. Shrugging past a crowd of freshman boys, she quickly walked down the hall towards the nearest girls' bathroom. Suddenly her path was blocked by an arm clad in a long, black sweatshirt sleeve. Her eyes followed the arm up to a shoulder, a neck, and finally the face of the hottest senior boy in the school.

"Hey, Miley," Gabe Lammatti said, a smirk spreading across his face.

"Hey, Gabe," she muttered, ducking underneath his arm only to be, once again, blocked.

"Miley, I was wondering…."

"Look, Gabe, right now really isn't a good time, okay?" Miley snapped. "I really appreciate the attention, but I really don't feel like talking right now."

Gabe's eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead as a confused expression made its way onto his face. "I don't get it," he muttered. "Every single girl in this school is falling head-over-heels in love with me. You were falling head-over-heels in love with me. Until now. The only girls who don't pay attention to me are girls who have dated me. And I know we haven't dated. Not yet, anyways."

"Can I please get past?" Miley asked, starting to get angry. She could feel the tears in her eyes start to accumulate.

"Why don't you like me?" he muttered to himself. "Who else doesn't like me that I haven't dated? Sarah, but she's… she's gay, isn't she? Oh my God, Stewart, you're gay, aren't you? Stewart's gay!"

"No I'm not!" Miley protested weakly, blood rushing to her face.

"Yeah, you are!" Gabe exclaimed, doubling over in laughter. "Oh my God, I can't believe it! Miley Stewart is gay! And here I thought you were just trying to play hard-to-get! Hey, Thomas, guess what! Miley's gay? Who do you have a crush on, Stewart?"

Miley pushed past him angrily, tears streaming down her face as she ran to the bathroom. She could feel people staring at her as she pushed the door open and ran into one of the stalls, slamming the door shut behind her and sliding the lock across the stall door with shaking hands. Sitting down on the ground, she pulled her knees to her chest and cradled her head in her hands, letting her sobs wrack her body.

There was a soft knock on the door of her stall and Miley lifted her head to see a pair of feet clad in gold flip-flops showing in the space under the stall door. She sniffled, grabbing a piece of toilet paper and wiping her nose. "Who is it?" she called out, wincing at the sound of raspy voice.

"It's Ashley."

Surprise shot through Miley's system. She shakily got to her feet and slid the lock back, yanking the stall door open to reveal a sympathetic-looking Ashley. "Why should I trust _you_ of all people?" she snapped.

The popular girl sighed. "Because there's no one else here," she murmured.

"Where's Amber?"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "She's in New York City at some prestigious school. She _says_ that she's at Juilliard, but I seriously doubt that," she scoffed. "For all I know, she could be in Oklahoma touring a lame college. And, honestly, I don't care what she's doing right now. She's a bitch."

"What?" Miley asked, surprised.

"You don't think that I'm honestly as stupid as I act, do you?" Ashley asked, laughing and shaking her head. "How do you think I manage to keep up in all of those Advanced Placement classes Amber and I are enrolled in? She just makes me look bad… okay, maybe I make myself look bad, but she has… stuff over me. If I don't abide by every single word that comes out of her mouth, then I'm doomed."

"What does she have over you?"

"It's not something I just go around telling people," Ashley murmured, shaking her head. "It was a mistake to tell Amber in the first place, and I'm not going to take that chance again. Let's just say that my social life would be over if my secret got out."

"Well, what do you want then?" Miley snapped.

Ashley sighed. "I heard what Gabe said and saw you run in here and thought that you might need someone to talk to," she explained. "Look, I know that you don't trust me, and I totally understand that. I don't blame you. If I were you, I wouldn't trust me. But… everyone needs someone, right?"

Miley stepped forward, walking past Ashley, and leaned her hands on the sink, her head dropping down. She felt like she was going to be sick. Gabe Lammatti had announced to the whole school that she was gay. Lilly absolutely hated her because she had a crush on her. And she was standing in the girl's bathroom before homeroom on her first day of school with Ashley, her eyes red and puffy from crying.

"Do… do you want me to get Lilly?" Ashley asked hesitantly.

"No, I'm fine," Miley sighed. "I'll just go to homeroom, now. The bell should be ringing soon, anyways." As if on cue, the warning bell rang, signaling that they had three minutes to get to homeroom. "Thanks, Ashley. I have no idea why you're doing this, and I don't know if I can trust you, but I really appreciate it."

Ashley smiled at her, then a look crossed her face and she started digging through her purse, pulling out some cover-up, mascara, and eyeliner. "Here, you can use this," she said, thrusting the items into Miley's hands. "It's waterproof, so… well, you're gonna have a hard day and it sucks to have to cover up everything after spending the five minutes between each class crying in the bathroom. Trust me. I'll tell Mr. Jacobs that you're in the bathroom."

The brunette stared down at the makeup in her hands and set it on the little ledge jutting out from the mirror, picking up the cover-up and starting to apply it. As much as she didn't trust Ashley, she agreed with her on the point that it was most likely going to be a hard day for her.

* * *

"Hard day" was an understatement. As soon as Miley walked into her homeroom, guys started whistling and girls started whispering. She sat down in her desk next to Lilly, her face a bright red. The blonde elbowed her lightly as Miley put her head down on her desk and put her hands over her ears so she could pretend that she was anywhere else in the world. They got their schedules and Miley discovered that she had five of her eight classes with Lilly, plus lunch, and their other three classes were right next to each other. Miley was too sick to feel excited.

And Ashley had been right when she said that it sucks to cover up everything after spending the five minutes between each class crying in the bathroom. As soon as every class let out, she ran to the old girls bathroom in the west wing of the school which no one used because all of the toilets were broken. She was late to every class and had multiple notes thrown at her during her classes, asking her if she would make out with a girl on videotape or if she knew that she was going to Hell.

Lunch was spent crying in the girls bathroom, and she ignored Lilly's question of where she had been when she rejoined her in French class after lunch. After that, Lilly stopped asking questions and sat looking straight ahead, a stony look on her face. Miley mentally punched herself in the face for messing things up with Lilly again.

After school, Miley waited by the front doors for Lilly to show up. They didn't have their last class together and Lilly had said that she needed to go to her locker to get some things. Miley had no idea what she needed to get, but she didn't want to walk through the halls and endure all of the stares, whispers, and jokes, so she had agreed to meet her by the front door. Lilly showed up ten minutes later, book bag slung over her shoulder, rubbing her right hand and wincing in pain.

They were in Lilly's car and were about to pull out of the parking space when Miley spotted Gabe Lammatti. She gasped in surprise when she saw that he was sporting a rapidly darkening black eye and that there was blood all over his face, which seemed to have sprouted from his now-crooked nose. Lilly snorted and Miley shifted her gaze from Gabe to Lilly.

"Lilly, why does Gabe look like he just got beat up by somebody's big brother?"

The blonde shrugged. "He had it coming for him," she muttered, looping her arm around the back of Miley's seat as she turned to look out the back windshield and started to back out of her parking space. "Somebody needed to deflate his big head."

"_Lilly!_" Miley gasped. "What would have happened if you did that while he was surrounded by his big football player friends? What if the principal finds out? God, Lilly, the principal _is_ going to find out! He has a black eye and a nosebleed!"

"I actually broke his nose," Lilly bragged. "I heard it crack when my fist hit his face!"

"Lilly!"

The skater girl shrugged as she shifted the car into drive and stepped on the gas. "Like I said before, he had it coming for him. He totally deserved it."

"But _why_?"

Lilly paused. "He hurt my best friend."

Miley sucked in a breath, unsure of how she was supposed to respond, and then chose not to because they were speeding down the road and Lilly was chattering about mindless events that had happened throughout the day, which included a freshman hitting on her (fruitlessly, she added), the English teacher refusing to call her Lilly and going by her full name, and some sophomores thinking that she was a freshman and trying to direct her to the wrong classroom until they realized she was going to AP Calculus.

These were the moments that she loved with Lilly, the moments that defined Miley's love for her. Miley settled down in her seat and listened to Lilly's mindless chatter, smiling to herself. The blonde had this way of making a horrible day just a little bit better.

_**Well there it is. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: sulpicia29, AlvinFan07, 20kels, MarkofConquest, XxuntouchablexX, .287, zzCharmedzz1, karleen3863, dcjp, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, mile Truscott, Breyton2009, LuisaHUAH. You guys really are awesome and I'm posting this chapter a little early because of all of these amazing, wonderful reviews!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	6. Chapter Six: Try It Out

_**Here's the next chapter. Sorry it took so long to update. Enjoy!**_

Miley groaned as she looked up from her calculus book, staring across her room at Lilly, who was totally engrossed in her own calculus homework. She smiled at the expression on the blonde's face: her tongue was sticking out of the side of her mouth as she concentrated on one of her problems and a look of satisfaction flashed across her face before she moved onto the next problem.

Sighing, Miley closed her calculus book and slid it aside. She had the rest of the weekend to finish it, and besides, she would probably accomplish a lot more if she started working on her English homework. That was one of the three classes she didn't have with Lilly. The other two were Psychology and Theatre Arts. Lilly was also taking Psychology, but at a different time, and had enrolled in Creative Writing, something that Miley had never known the blonde was interested in.

"Are you going to finish your homework or are you just going to sit there and daydream?" Lilly asked jokingly, snapping Miley back into reality. The brunette gave her a small smile and pulled her book bag towards her, rummaging through it to take out her English binder, her planner where she recorded all of her homework assignments, and her copy of _The Grapes of Wrath_.

"Have you already finished your calculus homework?" Lilly asked, surprised.

"Uh, no," Miley laughed, shaking her head. "I don't get half of the stuff the teacher says, and I get the homework even less. I don't even know why I took AP Calculus this year. I'm gonna end up failing out."

"No, you won't," Lilly said. "And do you wanna know why? Because you're best friends with the most brilliant math tutor in the whole school. Come on, open your math book back up and show me what you don't get. I'll help you with this." She crawled across the floor and sat down next to Miley, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with the brunette.

"Okay, I got the practice problems here, but I can't get anything past that. I copied all the notes and paid attention during class, but it's like it all went in one ear and out the other. I have no idea…."

"The first thing I want you to do is wipe everything that you think you learned in that class out of your mind and just relax," Lilly instructed. "Close your eyes." Miley's eyes fluttered closed. "Okay, what I want you to do is clear your mind of everything. Focus your mind on a completely empty room, white walls, white floor, white ceiling, no contents, no windows or doors. Do you have it?"

Miley nodded.

"Open your eyes; listen to what I say and watch what I do."

For the next twenty minutes, Lilly explained what needed to be done, doing two sample problems for Miley and letting the brunette walk herself through a problem herself. Finally, Lilly sat back and watched Miley do a problem by herself.

"Lilly, you're a miracle worker!" Miley exclaimed, starting on the next problem. "Wow, this is amazing! I actually understand this!"

"No, it's just a proven technique that I've used many times over," Lilly corrected her smugly. "Now as soon as you finish that, we can get started on our history homework. Are you reading _The Grapes of Wrath_ in English class?"

"Yeah, but Lilly, we have the same English teacher," Miley reminded her, moving quickly from one problem to the next.

"Oh, yeah… I forgot."

The room was quiet with the exception of Miley's pencil scratching against her paper, the occasional turn of a page in Miley's calculus book, and the sound of Lilly and Miley's breathing mixed together.

"Miley?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't get it."

The brunette looked up. "You don't get what?" she questioned.

"Why do you like me?" Lilly asked, her eyes desperate for an answer. "Out of all the people you could like, why me?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Miley sighed, setting down her pencil. Lilly nodded. "Because you get up at five o'clock in the morning during the summer to go surfing, but you get grumpy when you have to get up to go to school. Because I could watch you skateboarding for hours even though I have no idea what you're talking about when you get really excited about the way you landed a certain trick. The way your eyes light up when you're excited or happy. How you crinkle your nose when you're disgusted by something.

"I like you because you'll come over whenever I'm upset and you'll sit through hours of cheesy fantasy and science fiction movies even though you absolutely hate them. I like you because even though you have this whole skater look, you're a complete softie when it comes to watching movies that even have a hint of romance in them. Because you start to tear up when a character in a movie gets upset or when a couple that you really like breaks up.

"I like you because you're the strongest person I know. You've wiped out in the ocean and gotten back on your surfboard only minutes afterwards. You've fallen off your skateboard and gotten scratched up so badly that you've had to be taken to the emergency room, yet you're back at the skate park the next day. You were able to rebound after you broke up with Oliver, even though that was the most serious relationship you had ever been in ever."

She took a deep breath. "There's so much more, I could say," she whispered, meeting Lilly's eyes. "I could go on for hours. But I like you for who you are. You're Lilly Truscott, and that's the reason I fell in love with you."

Lilly blinked in surprise. "I… I don't know what to say, Miley," she confessed quietly. "That was one of the most… beautiful and amazing things that I've ever heard anyone say about me in my entire life."

"So you aren't mad at me?" Miley asked anxiously.

"Why would I be mad at you for _loving_ me?" Lilly asked incredulously. "Miley, I might not return the feelings, but I'm seriously flattered. You're one of the most amazing people in the world. You're strong, and patient, and kind, and there's nothing more I could ask for in a best friend. And I know that this is hard for you, and that just makes you an even better person. Because you could walk out right now and refuse to be my friend anymore because it hurts too much, and I would totally understand. But you're still right here with me."

"Of course, you're my best friend," Miley said simply, shrugging her shoulders. She gave the blonde a small smile and looked back down at her calculus homework, scrunching her eyebrows together in confusion for a moment before smiling and scribbling something down on her paper.

"Miley?"

"Yeah?"

"Would… would you like to sleep over tonight?"

The brunette looked up and her mouth curled up into a smile. "I'd love to."

* * *

Miley looked around Lilly's room, comforted by the fact that it was exactly the same as the last time she had been here. It had been a long time, months, since she had slept over at Lilly's house. They always went to Miley's house, which the brunette didn't mind, but it had hurt to not be invited over to her best friend's house for such a long time. She dropped her bag on the navy blue comforter covering Lilly's bed and continued to look around.

Lilly's room was large, bigger than Miley's room. The blonde had painted it a bright red when she was in seventh grade, convinced that red was the coolest color in the world, but had quickly grown tired of it. Because her mom wouldn't let her repaint her room, Lilly had fixed the problem by covering every square inch of her walls with posters. Sitting down on Lilly's bed, she blushed when she realized that there were three Hannah Montana posters on the blonde's walls.

"Hey, do you want something to eat?" Lilly yelled up the stairs.

"Um, no, I'm good!" Miley yelled back.

The blonde yelled something unintelligible, but Miley suspected that it was just an acknowledgement of Miley's answer. She hesitantly sat down on Lilly's bed and laughed at herself for being so nervous in Lilly's house. Only a few months ago, she would have been raiding Lilly's kitchen and crashing on her bed without even worrying about the consequences.

"Hey, I brought you something to eat anyways because, knowing you, you're gonna get hungry when you see me eating," Lilly said, walking into her room with a large bowl full of popcorn. She sat down on her bed next to Miley and thrust the bowl in her hands, pushing back her blankets and tossing Miley's bag on the ground by her headboard. "Come on, don't look so uncomfortable. It's just me."

"I know," Miley murmured, handing the bowl of popcorn back the blonde and taking a handful for herself. Lilly grabbed the remote for her TV from her nightstand and clicked the power button, quickly flipping through the channels until she found a channel that was playing a movie she liked.

Half an hour later, Miley's hand hit the bottom of the bowl and she realized that, between the two of them, they had eaten a whole bowl of popcorn. She pulled her hand back and was suddenly aware of all the greasy butter coating her fingers.

"I'm going to wash my hands," she murmured. Lilly hummed her acknowledgement and Miley got up gently, careful not to jostle Lilly. For some reason she felt like she had to be extra careful around her blonde best friend when she was at her house. She went into the bathroom and closed the door, reaching out for the faucet handles and slowly turning them to calm herself down.

Warm water ran over her hands and she squirted some soap onto her fingers, bringing them to her nose to inhale the scent. Strawberries. That made sense. Lilly was a fruity type of person. If she looked at all of Lilly's shampoos, she would probably see an assortment of fruit-scented soaps. Sighing, she shut off the water and turned to dry her hands.

For some reason, being in Lilly's house, in Lilly's room, made Miley nervous. She didn't know why since she had been in Lilly's room hundreds of other times. But something about this time was different. Maybe it was because she hadn't really been in Lilly's room since before Miley came out to her best friend, but she had to find some way to get around it. She didn't know if she could survive a whole night of discomfort around Lilly.

Miley went back into Lilly's room to find that the blonde had taken care of the popcorn bowl and washed her hands while Miley was gone. The brunette sat down on the bed next to Lilly, who immediately shifted forward.

"Could you braid my hair?" the blonde asked, handing a brush and a comb back to Miley. The brunette nodded, taking the brush and comb in her hands and gently running the brush through Lilly's long blonde locks. Using the comb, she started to French braid Lilly's hair, enjoying the feeling of doing something for Lilly that was so intimate.

When she was finished, she leaned back against the pillows by the headboard and Lilly sat next to her, their shoulders touching. Gradually, Lilly got closer and closer until her head was resting on Miley's chest and their legs tangled together. The brunette looked down to see that the blonde had fallen asleep against her and smiled to herself. She smoothed down a wisp of hair and pressed a kiss to the top of Lilly's head before reaching across the bed for the remote and turning the TV off.

Suddenly Miley realized the gravity of the situation she was in. Lilly had fallen asleep on her, and while she didn't want to wake her best friend up, she also didn't want the blonde to wake up later and think that Miley had taken advantage of her while she was asleep. Shifting slowly, she started to move Lilly off her, but the blonde mumbled something in her sleep and wrapped an arm around Miley's waist.

"Lilly?" Miley whispered. "Lilly, you have to get off me."

"No," Lilly mumbled into Miley's shoulder. "Just stay here."

Miley gulped. "Lilly, I don't know if you realize this, but this could be a really awkward position for us to fall asleep in," she murmured. "I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable and freak you out."

"Then just go to sleep," the blonde groaned. "And shut up, I can't fall back asleep with you chattering away like that. I was having a really good dream."

Sighing, Miley leaned her head back on the pillows. "Fine," she mumbled. "But don't say that I didn't warn you."

"Shut up!"

* * *

"Ugh, what time is it?"

Miley groaned as Lilly moved and she turned her head to look at the clock on Lilly's nightstand. "It's eleven o'clock at night," she grunted. "Go back to sleep."

"No, I'm not sleepy."

Opening her eyes all the way, Miley looked at Lilly to see that the blonde still had an arm wrapped around her waist and her chin was resting on Miley's shoulder as she stared intensely at the brunette's face. Sighing, the brunette sat up a little, leaning back on her propped-up elbow.

"Okay, Lilly, I'm awake," she rasped tiredly.

"Miley, can I… can I try something?" the blonde asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, sure," Miley answered tiredly.

Suddenly Lilly's face was extremely close and Miley was definitely awake. Lilly was staring into her eyes and leaning closer and closer until Miley's eyes fluttered shut and the brunette felt her best friend's lips on her own. She sighed into the kiss and allowed herself to enjoy it until she remember just who she was kissing and in what situation she was in. Miley ripped herself away from Lilly.

"What the hell was that?" she asked angrily, her eyes flashing.

Lilly looked at her with wide eyes, bottom lip quivering, tears pooling in her big, blue eyes. The brunette instantly regretted yelling at her best friend, but she didn't need Lilly to mess with her heart any more than she had already unknowingly messed with it.

"I… I'm sorry," Lilly murmured, tears starting to stream down her face. She hurried to get up, but Miley caught her gently by the arm, pulling her back to a sitting position on her bed.

"Look, Lilly, I'm sorry I snapped at you," Miley apologized. "But… you can't just kiss me because I like you. It's like… it's like you going up to Jackson and kissing _him_. He would gladly go out with you, but you're way too good for him, so he would never have the chance to go out with him. You'd be torturing him, and that's what you're doing to me. So please don't kiss me unless you really mean it and you're seriously considering having a relationship with me."

"Miley, I'm sorry, I just… I kept thinking about it, and I can't get the idea out of my head," Lilly started babbling. "I just can't get the idea of you and me being together out of my head, and it scares me because it's so… it's not something I'm familiar with. I would never, _ever_ try to hurt you. You have to believe me, but when I started thinking about it, something started fluttering in my chest and I felt like there was a mouse running on one of those squeaky wheels in my stomach, and sometimes I can't think when I'm around you because I'm too busy looking at you, and… and… and I'm _scared_."

The brunette sighed and looked down at her lap. "I honestly don't know what to say," she murmured. "As much as I want to say that I know exactly what to do, I'm just as scared as you are, because I could get hurt during this, as well." She looked up and caught Lilly's eyes with her own. "But you're my best friend and I'm going to help you get through this no matter what."

"What… what if I want to be in a relationship with you?" Lilly asked quietly.

Miley hesitated. "Then we can try it out," she finally answered. "But we have to take it slow, considering the situation. I don't want to lose you as a friend, because I think that would be even worse than not trying to have a romantic relationship between the two of us. There have to be rules, and we have to be able to talk to each other about things and not hide anything, and I mean _anything_, from each other."

"Okay," Lilly agreed slowly. "What are your… requirements?"

"First of all, I'm not going to push you to do anything in public," Miley said, giving an encouraging smile to the blonde. "What happens between the two of us is between us and only us. There is no pressure to come out to anyone at school, or your mom, or my dad. You call the shots on that one, okay?"

Lilly nodded.

"As for our… physical relationship, we won't do anything that either of us is not comfortable with," she said, stumbling through the beginning awkwardly. "We'll take that part really slow because I don't want to do anything that you aren't comfortable with. And, to be quite honest, there are some things that I'm not comfortable doing."

"That's reasonable," Lilly agreed.

"And finally, this relationship has two people in it, not just one," Miley said seriously. "We both have needs, and we both need to feel needed up to a certain point. And we have to feel comfortable communicating with each other. If something's going wrong, or if we're not satisfied with a part of our relationship, we need to be able to talk about it, not stew about it for weeks on end before finally blowing up at each other."

"Okay," Lilly whispered.

"I really want to make this work," Miley murmured, reaching over to Lilly and taking her hand in her own. The blonde smiled up at her and Miley couldn't help but smile back. "I really like you, Lilly."

Lilly gave her a radiant smile. "I really like you, too, Miley."

_**I'm sorry I took so long with this chapter, and I'm not completely satisfied with it, but I don't think I could write it any better without making some MAJOR changes to the rest of the story. I'll try to get the next chapter up within the next week.**_

_**Are there any Glee fans out there reading this story? Just wondering because I have officially discovered Glee, and I have to say, I'm officially hooked and quite possibly obsessed. Sorry, just had to get that out of my system and I promise the rest of the comments will be purely Hannah Montana oriented.**_

_**In regards to my other unfinished stories, "Forgiving and Forgetting," "Remembering Miley," and "Miley Says Goodbye?": I am working on these stories; please believe me. I just have serious cases of writer's block. I promise I WILL finish them. It might not be within the next couple weeks, or even within the next couple months, but I do finish what I start, and I promise that I'll get those finished.**_

_**As for the reviewers for the last chapter, my thanks go out to: AlvinFan07, zzCharmedzz1, joske432, XxuntouchablexX, HannahMiley1fan, TheBoredOne85, 20kels, Azula's Falme 1415, Breyton2009, LuisaHUAH, dcjp, karleen3863, makurutenoh, Whurmy, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, and Satan's Camaro. Once again, many thanks and all the credit goes to Freudian Slips Cause Problems for the story idea.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	7. Chapter Seven: Special Firsts

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**_

Miley felt like she was on top of the world. Lilly was her girlfriend, Gabe had stopped teasing her about being gay because he was afraid Lilly was going to punch him in the face, she had passed her first calculus test with flying colors, Amber was sick and wasn't in school, and Ashley was being nice to her by not making fun of her at all.

The brunette glanced over at Lilly, who was lying on her bed and staring up at the ceiling as she hummed along to the radio. After a moment, the song registered as "Hey There, Delilah" and Miley smiled. She liked this song. And she liked Lilly. This song and Lilly went together perfectly.

"What are you grinning to yourself about over there?" Lilly asked suddenly, jolting Miley out of her thoughts. "We might be together, but that doesn't mean that I'm any more willing to go along with one of your crazy schemes. In fact, it might make me a little less willing."

"Excuse me?" Miley asked, faking offense. "My schemes are absolutely brilliant, thank you very much! Besides, I wasn't thinking up a scheme. There's no need to. My life is absolutely perfect the way it is." She smiled sweetly at Lilly, who just blushed and turned her head away in embarrassment.

It had been a week since she and Lilly had started dating and everything had gone perfect so far. They usually hung out at either Lilly or Miley's house because Lilly wasn't "out" to the public yet, although they had told Miley's dad that they were dating. The blonde was still nervous about telling her mom, so they usually stayed in Lilly's room when they were over at her house, which was perfectly fine with Miley.

Their physical relationship was progressing slowly, but surely. Whenever they knew no one was looking, they would lace their fingers together and Lilly would lean her head on Miley's shoulder. Miley kissed Lilly on the top of the head both times the blonde had fallen asleep on her shoulder. She had kissed her on the cheek once, but she had refrained from doing so again because Lilly had blushed a bright red and wasn't able to speak full sentences for half an hour.

"Tomorrow's Saturday!" Miley announced suddenly. "You're sleeping over at my house tonight since I slept over here last Friday. And Daddy can make us blueberry pancakes in the morning because he just bought a whole gallon of that blueberry syrup that we had two weeks ago. Then we can go to the beach and get ice cream from Rico's, even though it's terribly overpriced, and finally we can go to the movies, and then I can drop you off back home and then go home and collapse on my bed and daydream about our day until my dad comes upstairs and tells me that it's time for dinner."

Lilly stared at her for a moment before speaking. "Did you mean to say that out loud?"

"Well, maybe not the last part," Miley murmured, blushing. "But everything else, yes. Those are our plans for tomorrow. My dad won't mind, and didn't your mom leave for some weekend trip at three o'clock today?"

"Yeah, she's going to be in Vegas until Monday," Lilly answered easily. "She's flying in at seven o'clock in the morning and she's going to take me out to eat after school, which means that we can't do homework that night. Sorry." She gave Miley an apologetic look.

"It's fine, she's probably just jealous because I've been hogging you all to myself," Miley said, waving her off. "Besides, we'll start that English assignment tonight, which means we'll only have the essay part left by Monday. We'll easily be able to finish it by Tuesday. And I'll see you all day in school, so it's not like she's tearing the two of us apart or…."

"Miley, I want to tell her," Lilly interrupted quickly. "I want to tell her about us."

The brunette stared at her for a moment. "Okay," she said slowly, nodding as she looked away from Lilly. "That's perfectly fine. Do you… do you want me to be there with you or do you want to do it by yourself?"

"I… I think I'm going to do it by myself," Lilly answered hesitantly. "I'm going to break it to her slowly. First, I'm gonna tell her that I'm… that I like girls, and I want her to get used to that idea. And… and when I feel the time is right, we can tell her that we're dating."

"It's your decision," Miley murmured gently, sliding across the floor and reaching up to set a comforting hand on Lilly's. "And I'm going to be here for you no matter what happens."

"Thanks," Lilly smiled.

Miley couldn't help but smile back.

* * *

It was Monday night and Miley was focusing on her English essay, which was due the next day. She was just about to start writing the conclusion of the essay when her cell phone rang. Miley immediately shot to her feet and rushed across her room to where her cell phone was plugged into the wall, hoping that it was Lilly calling her and not her theatre arts partner calling for the fifth time that night wondering _exactly_ how they should choreograph their rendition of "Walking on Sunshine."

"Hello?" she gasped breathlessly into the phone.

"Miley? Did you just run a marathon or something?"

"Lilly!" Miley squealed happily. The blonde sounded like she was in a good mood, which had to mean that her conversation with her mom had to have gone well. "I've been waiting for _hours_ and Chelsea won't stop calling me and I'm almost finished with my English paper!"

"Someone had a little too much loco in their hot cocoa," Lilly murmured, and Miley smiled guiltily.

"So?" she asked eagerly. "What did she say?"

Lilly took a deep breath. "She's okay with it," she sighed. "She was a little surprised at first because of Oliver, but… man, I really wish you had been here. After a couple minutes, she literally jumped off the couch and started dancing because she was happy that I wouldn't get pregnant while I was a teenager."

They laughed together and Miley could practically hear the relief in Lilly's voice. "I'm happy for you, Lilly," she murmured. "So does this mean that I can officially take you out on a date now? I mean, I know we're not.. _out_, really, like, to the rest of the world, but would you… would you like to go out to dinner with me Saturday night? I know that I'm asking you over the phone and that I should be asking you in person, but I just couldn't wait and…."

"Miles, it's fine," Lilly interrupted. "I'm not gonna get mad at you for something silly like that. Of course I would like to go to dinner with you this Saturday."

Biting her lip to keep herself from yelling in triumph, Miley pumped a fist in the air in victory. "Okay, I'll pick you up at your house at seven?" she asked excitedly.

"Sounds good," Lilly answered, almost too calmly.

"Oh, and Sarah called, like, half an hour ago," she said, just remembering. "She said that she was having a party or something at her house on Sunday. Pool party, I think. She said she called you but you didn't pick up, so she just went ahead and called me. It's at three and ends at ten. Both of us are invited."

"Um, I'll have to ask my mom because I think we were going to do something on Sunday, but I'll let both you and Sarah know," Lilly replied. "But, hey, I have to go. I still have to write that English essay that's due tomorrow and then I have to double-check my answers for calculus. I wish I could talk more, but I'll see you tomorrow at the corner to walk to school."

"M'kay, I'll see you tomorrow," Miley whispered sadly.

There was no sound from the other end of the line and Miley was about to hang up, thinking that Lilly had already done so, when Lilly spoke. "You know I missed you after school," she murmured.

"Me, too," Miley whispered. "But you have to finish your homework. It's okay that you can't talk; I'll see you tomorrow."

"Thank you, Miles," Lilly said gratefully. "I'll call you before I go to bed."

"Okay, I'll talk to you in a couple hours, then," Miley said. She waited until Lilly had hung up to snap her phone shut. Sighing, she checked the time. It was only eight o'clock, which meant that she would have to wait at least three hours to talk to Lilly, if not more.

The blonde might not feel the same way, but Miley was already falling head-over heels in love with Lilly.

* * *

"Dad, you said I could borrow the car!" Miley exclaimed, feeling tears threatening to fall. Her date with Lilly needed to be perfect and she had asked her dad almost a week in advance if she could borrow the car, and he had said she could. Now he was saying that he needed it and her whole date would be ruined if she didn't have the car. She had to leave in two hours and she still had to get ready.

"Bud, I know I said you could use the car, but I really need it," he said gently. "You can have the car next weekend."

"But my date with Lilly is _today_," Miley cried, tears starting to slide down her cheeks.

Her dad stopped pulling the ingredients for a sandwich out of the fridge to look at her. Miley sniffled and wiped her face on her sleeve, trying to clear away the tears, but they kept coming. Sighing, he shut the fridge, setting the bottle of yellow mustard down on the counter, and walked over to her.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked gently. "I would have made sure that I didn't have to use the car. I thought that you just wanted to drive around the city with Lilly, not take her out on a date."

"Because Lilly just came out to her mom and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be telling you that we're dating yet because I don't know if Lilly is ready and I wanted tonight to be perfect and now it won't be because I won't be able to pick Lilly up," Miley sobbed, stumbling forward into her dad's arms. He sighed and pulled her into a hug, rocking her back and forth and awkwardly smoothing out her hair.

"Miles, I really don't know how something I had intended to be good turned into something that would make you cry," he sighed once she had started calming down. "I was gonna take you to get a car of your own as a early combined birthday and graduation gift, but that can always wait until tomorrow. If you had just told me that you were taking Lilly out tonight I would have taken you earlier today."

Miley pulled away from her dad and looked up at him. "Wait, you… you're getting me a car?" she asked, her voice raspy from crying.

He smiled down at her. "Yeah, I'm proud of you," he murmured, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "You're my little girl, except you're all grown up, now, and I wanted to let you know that I'm incredibly proud of how far you've come. Maybe you didn't make the best career decision in the world…."

"Dad," Miley muttered, raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms over her chest. Her dad hadn't been too thrilled when she had announced the end of her career. It had put him out of a job and he wasn't too happy about managing some stuck-up celebrity's life. Apparently she wasn't half as bad as some performers out in Hollywood.

"Okay, okay, I won't say anything," he relented, holding his hands up in surrender. "But if Hannah ever wants to make a comeback…."

"_Dad_."

"Fine," he sighed. "When you're ready. But I'll take you out to get the car tomorrow. Right now you have to get ready for a date."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Miley squealed, throwing herself at her dad and wrapping her arms around his neck. He laughed and patted her on the back before she pulled away and pecked his cheek quickly, quickly starting towards the stairs afterwards. "Oh, and Dad? Please don't tell anyone about me and Lilly yet. Or about Lilly coming out to her mom. I wasn't supposed to tell you…."

"My mouth is zipped," he promised, pretending to zip his mouth up. Miley just rolled her eyes at him as he pretended to lock his mouth and throw away the key.

An hour and a half later, Miley was standing in front of her mirror, looking at the outfit she had picked out, a simple sundress. She didn't want to overdress for the occasion, but she wanted to impress Lilly, too. Earlier, the blonde had called wondering what she should wear, and Miley had told her something comfortable but nice. Nervously smoothing out invisible wrinkles from her dress, Miley turned away from the mirror and went downstairs.

"Daddy, I'm leaving now!" she yelled as she went picked his car keys up off the coffee table and headed for the door. "I should be back by eleven and if I'm going to be back later, I'll call you!"

"Okay!" he yelled back. "Have a good time and stay out of trouble!"

Miley got in the car and sat there for five minutes, knowing that she didn't have to leave for another fifteen. But she was nervous and excited, so she twisted the key in the ignition and slowly backed out of the driveway.

The drive to Lilly's house would have normally taken five minutes, but Miley drove so slow that it took twice as long. She parked in the driveway behind Lilly's Volkswagen and cut the engine, taking a deep breath and slowly pulling the key out of the ignition. Taking another deep breath, she checked to see that she had her purse and her money before slowly getting out of the car and walking up to the front door. The light was still on in Lilly's room, which meant that the blonde probably didn't know that she was here yet.

Swallowing nervously, Miley climbed the two steps onto Lilly's porch and rang the doorbell, taking a step back away from the door as she waited for someone to answer it. A couple seconds later, the door opened to reveal Lilly's mom standing in the foyer.

"Hey, Miley, what are you doing all dressed up on the front porch?" she asked with a small smile. "Oh, where are my manners? Come on in. I don't want you standing out there like a stranger; you're practically family!"

Miley smiled weakly and stepped inside, wondering how she was going to explain this to Lilly's mom. Right at that moment, Lilly came running down the stairs and Miley's jaw dropped open. Lilly looked absolutely gorgeous in a pair of black skinny jeans and a form-fitting, strapless green top. The blonde had let her hair down, curls falling gently on her shoulders, and Miley could tell that she had even put a little makeup on.

"You're early," Lilly said accusingly, a small smile on her face to let Miley know that it was a joke. "But you look absolutely amazing."

"I didn't know you two girls were having a girl's night out tonight," Lilly's mom said.

"Oh, um, Mom," Lilly started awkwardly, walking over to stand by Miley, "Miley and I are together. Like, we're dating." She laced their fingers together and held them up in the air for her mom to see.

Lilly's mom looked between the two of them and Miley started to get nervous. Finally, she spoke. "I suppose I should have seen this coming a long time ago," she sighed, giving the girls a small smile. "You two were always closer to each other than any other friends ever were, weren't you? I'm not upset at you two girls, and I understand why you're hesitant to tell me, but I wish you trusted me a little more. I'm not going to kick my only daughter and her best friend out of the house."

Miley felt Lilly relax next to her and the brunette let a smile creep onto her face. "Thanks, Mrs. Truscott," she said gratefully. "Um, I know it's a little late, but… well, I want to do this right." She let go of Lilly's hand, noting the confused expression on the blonde's face, and took a few steps forward to she was directly in front of Lilly's mom.

"Mrs. Truscott, your daughter and I have been friends for an incredibly long time, and over the years of friendship, I have developed deeper feelings for her," Miley said seriously, trying to gauge Mrs. Truscott's feelings from her facial expression. "I have already asked Lilly to be my girlfriend and I've asked her on our first official date, but I would like to ask your permission to date her and take her out tonight."

The older blonde smiled at Miley gratefully. "Thank you for asking, Miley. Of course I give you permission." She looked past Miley at Lilly. "Lilly, let me just say, this girl is a keeper."

The brunette blushed and Lilly groaned as Mrs. Truscott started laughing. "Go ahead, girls, go on your date and have fun."

"She should be home by eleven o'clock, Mrs. Truscott, but if we're any later, I'll call you and let you know," Miley said, taking a few steps back and once again taking Lilly's hand in her own.

"That should be fine, Miley, thank you," Mrs. Truscott said, nodding. "Now you two girls have fun."

Lilly grinned and followed Miley out to the car, her grin widening when Miley opened the passenger's door for her and helped her in. Miley shut the door once she was sure Lilly was all the way inside and practically ran to the other side of the car, rushing to get inside. She fit the key in the ignition and turned the car on, smiling at Lilly before she backed out of the driveway.

"You look really nice tonight, Lilly," Miley murmured shyly, glancing over at her girlfriend to see a blush spread across her cheeks.

"Thanks, you do, too," Lilly replied, and Miley blushed. "Um, where are we going?"

"It's a surprise," Miley grinned, looking at Lilly as she stopped at a red light. "But I know that you're going to love it!"

"I brought money…" Lilly started.

"No!" Miley exclaimed. "You're not going to pay. I asked you out, this is my date, and I'm going to pay for you. I wouldn't have asked you out if I didn't fully intend to pay. It's the way things are done in my house, unless you're a girl dating a boy, and I'd feel bad if I made you pay tonight."

"Okay, okay," Lilly said, smiling to herself.

After a few minutes of silence, Miley turned on the radio and started singing along with Lilly to the song playing. They both grinned at each other and laughed at their slightly off-key singing, both fully aware but not caring that Lilly was way more off-key than Miley was. Then Miley pulled into the parking lot of Geoffrey's, one of the most highly-rated restaurants in Malibu.

"Oh my God, Miley, this is way too expensive," Lilly protested as soon as she saw where Miley was taking her. "And I'm way underdressed. We can just go to Sarah's or something, I really don't care. As long as I get to hang out with you and eat food."

"No, Lilly, this is my treat," Miley insisted, parking the car. "I want to do this for you, so don't even try to convince me to take you to Sarah's. We can go there any time. This is like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Plus, I already made the reservations."

"But you have to make reservations weeks in advance!" Lilly exclaimed.

Miley grinned. "That's where Hannah comes into play," she smiled. "The owner owed Hannah a favor, and I called it in. Outdoor table for two with an amazing view of the ocean. Reservation for seven-thirty. And it's seven twenty-five now. They cancel if you're five minutes late, so we'd better get in there. And don't worry about how you look because I think you look absolutely gorgeous, and so should everyone else."

"Okay, fine, but I'm going to get you back for this," Lilly muttered.

The brunette laughed in triumph and got out of the car, opening the door for Lilly and shutting it once she got out of the car. She reached down for Lilly's hand, taking it in her own, and led her through the parking lot, to the door, and into the restaurant.

"Do you have a reservation?" the host asked as soon as they walked in.

"Yes, it's under Miley Stewart," Miley said authoritatively. "My friend, Hannah, said that she called in a favor and that we had a reservation for today at seven-thirty with an outside, ocean-view table."

"Oh, you're _Hannah's_ friend," the host said, his demeanor changing immediately from slightly condescending to completely accommodating. "Yes, of course, Hannah called earlier this week and your reservation was made. Your table is ready if you'll just follow me. I'm assuming you would like the dinner menu?"

"Yes, thank you," Miley answered, smiling and winking at Lilly as the host scrambled to get two menus. He gave them a large smile and beckoned for them to follow him, leading them outside and showing them to a table with a view overlooking the ocean. Miley pulled Lilly's chair out for her before sitting down herself.

"Your server will be with you shortly to get your drinks for you; take your time with the menus," the host said, bowing himself away.

Miley opened her menu. "Order whatever you want," she murmured to Lilly.

"But… but… I don't even know what half of this stuff is!" the blonde exclaimed quietly.

"Hey, hey, don't worry, I'll help you," Miley smiled. "Just focus on what you want to drink. You can have practically anything here."

"Is just a regular coke okay?" Lilly asked in a small voice.

"Anything for you," Miley murmured.

A server appeared at their table and Miley looked up at her.

"Hi, my name is Brianne and I'm going to be your server for tonight," she said with a smile, pulling a notepad and pen from the pocket of her apron. "Tonight's soup specials are wild mushroom soup and Tahitian corn chowder. Do you know what you would like to drink or do you need more time?"

"Um, can I have sweet tea with extra lemon?" Miley asked, looking down at her menu.

Brianne nodded and jotted it down, then looked expectantly at Lilly.

"Can I just have a coke, please?" she asked in a small voice.

"Of course," Brianne said, giving her a small smile before writing it down on her notepad. "I'll be back in a few minutes with your drinks and to take your orders." She quickly walked away and disappeared.

"What the heck am I supposed to get?" Lilly whispered urgently. "I think I need a translator to tell me what this menu says!"

"I said I would help you," Miley murmured comfortingly. "Do you trust me?"

Lilly nodded hesitantly.

"Then let me order for you," Miley said. "Trust me, I've been here before and I know exactly what you would like on the menu. But I'll let you order your own dessert when it comes time to choose. I think you would like everything on that menu."

"Okay, thanks," Lilly sighed, obviously relieved.

Brianne came back, setting their drinks in front of them and pulling out her notepad again, looking between Miley and Lilly expectantly.

"Um, for appetizers, she would like the Baked Brie in Puff Pastry and I would like the Lobster and Scallop Ceviche," Miley said, and Brianne directed her attention to the brunette, writing down what she was ordering. "And for the main course, she would like the Prime Kobe Wagyu New York Steak and I would like the Oven Roasted Chicken Breast. And we'll take the dessert menu after we've finished our meals."

The server nodded. "Okay, is there anything else I can get you?" she asked. "Oh, I almost forgot." She pulled some matches out of her pocket and lit the candles in the middle of the table. "If there's anything else I can get you, don't hesitate to ask."

"That should be it, thank you," Miley said, dismissing Brianne.

"Miles, this place is really nice," Lilly said, looking around with wide eyes.

"Yeah, my dad took me here for my sixteenth birthday," Miley said, looking at the view. "Although, we didn't get a table this good. This is probably because Hannah called for us and got the reservation. If I had called myself then we probably would've gotten a table inside."

"This is amazing," Lilly repeated, shaking her head. "How am I supposed to compare to this? I can't…."

"Lilly, no," Miley stated firmly. "Don't try to get reservations in the most expensive restaurant you can afford and then spend all of your money on one night. I don't want you to do that. The reason I took you here is because it holds a lot of memories for me, and I want it to do the same for you. My dad took me here for my sixteenth birthday, for Hannah's first platinum CD, and as a celebration for Jackson getting into college. And I'm taking you here because it's our first date. This restaurant represents firsts for me, at least, the really good ones. And this is the best so far."

The blonde smiled at her. "Thanks, Miley," she whispered. "I… I didn't realize it meant so much to you. Thank you for including me in something as important to you as this."

"Well, you're important to me, too," Miley murmured, biting her lip and blushing. "I really like you, Lilly."

"I like you, too," Lilly whispered back, reaching across the table and tangling their fingers together. "And I think it was really sweet, although unnecessary, for you to ask my mom's permission to date me and take me out tonight. No one else has ever done that. Not even Oliver."

"Like I said, I want to do this the right way," Miley stated. "I know that it's a bit of a shocker for your mom that we're dating, and I want to make this as easy as possible for her and, in turn, you. She doesn't need to be worrying about me randomly dropping by your house, taking you places, and then dropping you off at all hours of the day."

"But still, it was unnecessary," Lilly insisted.

Miley smiled at her. "But totally worth it." They were both quiet for a moment. "So… this is okay? I mean, it's a good start, right?"

Lilly laughed. "Are you _nervous_?" she asked incredulously. "You, _the_ Hannah Montana, are nervous to take your best friend of eight years out to eat?"

"Yeah," Miley muttered, blushing. "I mean, I want this to be perfect."

"Miles, it doesn't have to be," Lilly said. "As long as you're here, I'll be happy."

The brunette blushed just as Brianne walked over to their table with their appetizers and set the dishes in front of them. Miley dismissed the Brianne after she had asked if they needed anything else and focused on the foot in front of her.

"Are you sure I'll like this?" Lilly asked uncertainly.

"Trust me, you'll love it," Miley said, starting to eat her own appetizer. "You probably shouldn't finish the whole thing if you want to eat dinner and dessert, but I can always help you, and you can try my appetizer, although I doubt that you'll like it. You almost puked when I made you eat scallops last time."

"Because they're disgusting," Lilly said, rolling her eyes. She took a taste of the food in front of her and a smile spread across her face. Miley watched incredulously as she ate slowly and moderately, something that she had never seen Lilly do.

"That's amazing," Miley muttered.

"What?" Lilly asked.

"I've never seen you eat without getting food on your face," Miley answered, shaking her head in incredulity.

Lilly wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms over her chest, faking offense. Miley just laughed and finished eating her own appetizer, pushing her plate away from her when she was finished. Ten minutes later, Brianne cleared their plates and set their main dishes in front of them. Miley's mouth started watering as she stared down at her food and she looked up to see that Lilly had already started eating her steak.

"You were right," Lilly said once she had swallowed a bite. "I _do_ like the food you ordered for me. Maybe you should order for me everywhere we go."

"Um, no, I don't think so," Miley laughed.

After they had finished their dessert, Miley had ordered herself the Chocolate Crunch Torte and had ordered Lilly the Warm Crisp Apple Tart, Miley paid the bill, which she refused to reveal to Lilly, and led her out to the car.

"Thank you for eating with us, please come back soon," the host said as they left. "And please tell Hannah that she's welcome any time without reservations."

"I'll pass it on," Miley smiled as she held the door open for Lilly and followed her out. "Man, that guy pisses me off. He wouldn't have given us the time of day if I hadn't mentioned Hannah's name. That's why I really don't like special treatment for celebrities. But, then again, that's what got us the reservation."

"Hey, there are always going to be people like that in the world," Lilly murmured comfortingly, taking Miley's hand. "Especially in the restaurant business. You're just going to have to get used to it. And if you're at a disadvantage, just use Hannah. She'll always get you what you want."

Miley just laughed and opened the car door for Lilly.

"So it's nine thirty and you told my mom that if we got back after eleven you would call her," Lilly said. "You _have_ to have something else planned because I know for a fact that dinner couldn't have ever taken four hours."

"You're right," Miley answered, buckling up and turning on the car. "But you're just going to have to wait and see."

She drove out of the parking lot and listened to Lilly talk about how good the food was at the restaurant. Finally, half an hour later, she parked on the side of the road and slipped off her shoes, motioning for Lilly to do the same and get out of the car. Taking the blonde's hand in her own, she led her off to the side of the road down a small path and onto the beach, which was completely deserted.

"I wanted to take you to the beach on our first date," Miley whispered shyly, biting her lip and smiling at Lilly. "I've always wanted to come to the beach with my date and walk barefoot along the water."

"Jake never did that with you?" Lilly asked incredulously.

The brunette shook her head. "No, which is kind of surprising considering he tried to do every romantic thing possible to keep me with him," she murmured. "But I didn't ask you out so we could talk about Jake. He's kind of a jerk and I don't really like him."

"Kind of?" Lilly asked, and they laughed together as they started walking down the beach. "Tonight was perfect, Miley. I really loved everything you did. It was amazing."

"I'm happy that I could make you happy," Miley smiled.

They walked along in silence for a few minutes before Miley spoke again. "I know it's a little soon to talk about this and I have absolutely no say in how this happens, but I was wondering if you were thinking about coming out to the school as a couple," she said in a quiet voice.

Lilly sighed. "I've thought about it," she admitted. "And you absolutely have a say in how it happens. I just… I'm really nervous because I saw what happened to you, and I don't want to have to be punching people every day because they're insulting us. No matter what happens with this relationship, you're my best friend and I feel like if people found out that we're together, you would get more criticism for it than I would. And I really don't want that to happen to you."

"You tell me when you're ready, okay?" Miley said gently. "Don't worry about me. We'll get through this together. I don't want you to hold back simply because you don't want me to get hurt. Things are going to happen, Lilly. I knew that when I told you that I'm gay. I knew that when I told you that I like you. It's something that I'm going to have to get used to if I don't want to hide part of my life from the world."

She shook her head. "I hate hiding things," she murmured. "That's what I did with Hannah, and if I did that with my orientation, I think I would eventually crack. I was always going to end up giving up Hannah. I just didn't know when."

"What are you going to do for college and stuff?" Lilly asked. "I mean, I always thought you would have Hannah, but now that you don't…."

"I'm going to major in music and then I have a choice to make," she whispered. "I can revive Hannah and continue living half my life basically as a lie, I can start a world of fame as just Miley, or I can start my own record company, which is sorely tempting. But I can't live without music being some part of my life."

"No matter what you do, you're going to be amazing at it," Lilly murmured.

"What do you want to do?" Miley asked curiously. Lilly had never really told Miley about her interests after she graduated from high school.

The blonde shook her head and shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know," she admitted. "I mean, I've always had an interest in a tone of different things. I've taken theater classes, art classes, business classes, and now I'm taking a writing class, but nothing's really stuck out for me. I mean, I guess I'm a really good writer from what my teacher says, but I don't know if I want to do that for the rest of my life. I kinda want to do something with my life, you know? Like, help people."

"You'd totally be good at that," Miley said. "You have such a big heart and I think you'd really like helping people."

Lilly bit her lip nervously. "Actually, I was kind of thinking about going to law school and… and going into family law," she whispered shyly. She looked at Miley for a reaction.

"Lilly, that'd be great!" Miley exclaimed.

"Really?" she asked hopefully. "You think I'd be good at that?"

"Well, yeah," Miley replied. "I mean, you're passionate about what you do, and you like helping people. You're an amazing speaker, and if your writing teacher says that you're a good writer, then that's going to help, too. I think that'd be perfect for you."

"I think I might apply to Harvard and Yale."

Miley paused. Harvard and Yale were on the complete opposite side of the country. If Miley stayed in Malibu with her dad in brother and Lilly went to Harvard or Yale, then they would never get to see each other. "Well, that would be great if you got in," she said slowly. "You'd get tons of opportunities if you went to Harvard or Yale."

"But I wouldn't get to see you," Lilly murmured.

"Hey," Miley said, stopping them both and taking Lilly's face between her hands. "Don't worry about that. Everything will work out, no matter where we go to college. Don't choose where you're going to go based on where I go. Choose based on where _you_ want to go and whether or not the college is right for you. I want you to get a good education and get into a good law school, if that's what you decide to do."

Lilly nodded and they stared into each other's eyes.

"I kind of want to kiss you," Lilly whispered.

"Me too," Miley whispered back.

The brunette closed her eyes as she leaned forward, her heart beating in her chest. Time seemed to slow and come to a stop as she felt Lilly's warm breath against her mouth. And then she felt the blonde's lips touch her own, soft and unsure, and she tilted her head slightly, moving her lips against Lilly's. When she pulled back and opened her eyes, she saw that Lilly still had her eyes closed and was smiling.

"That was amazing," the blonde whispered, opening her eyes.

Miley dropped her hands from Lilly's face to her shoulders as the blonde wrapped her arms around her waste. Their foreheads pressed together as they stared into each other's eyes.

"Yeah?" Miley asked breathlessly.

"Yeah."

* * *

Lilly and Miley stood on Lilly's front porch, both trying to prolong their goodbyes as long as possible. Finally Miley looked down at her phone and, seeing that it was almost eleven o'clock, sighed.

"I should be going," she murmured.

"But I don't want you to go," Lilly protested. "Can't you stay over?"

"Probably not," Miley said, shaking her head. "First of all, you're mom probably wants to talk to you about the date. Second, it might be a little awkward for her if her daughter and her girlfriend both slept in the same room in the same bed the day they told her they had started dating. Third, my dad is waiting up for me and he would not be happy if I decided to stay over tonight. Maybe next weekend."

"Next weekend _I'm_ taking _you_ out on a date," Lilly giggled, tapping Miley's nose lightly.

"I really have to go," Miley whispered.

"Okay," Lilly sighed. "But I'm not happy."

"I'll call you tomorrow. I promise."

Lilly smiled. "I'll be waiting for your call. We can pick out clouds together!"

Miley made a face. "I don't think so." She kissed Lilly on the forehead. "Good night."

"Night," Lilly whispered as Miley walked to her car and got in. She waited until Lilly had gone inside and shut the door before pulling out of the driveway.

Tonight had been the best night of her life.

_**I was going to put more in there, but it ended up being twelve pages long and I decided I'd just continue in the next chapter. Only four chapters left! Wow, this is really going by fast. Well, I want to send out a thank-you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: zzCharmedzz1, AlvinFan07, Whurmy, XxuntouchablexX, TheBoredOne85, Breyton2009, LuisaHUAH, karleen3863, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, dcjp, Jaymes Maxwell, Kurrent, and Azula's Flame 1415. Thank you all so much; you're awesome! And extra thanks to Freudian Slips Cause Problems for the story idea.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	8. Chapter Eight: Revealed

The woman behind the desk in the main office of the school smiled as Miley handed in the note the dentist had printed out for her and told her to sign in. She quickly scribbled her name on the sign-in sheet, jotted down the time after glancing up at the clock, and took the pass that the secretary handed her when she was finished.

"Go straight to class!" the secretary called after her as she left the office.

Miley smiled to herself. Normally, she would have gone straight to her theatre class, but she hadn't seen Lilly at all that morning and had barely talked to her, not counting the few texts they had exchanged while Miley was in the dentist's office and Lilly was sitting in her creative writing class. She would make a quick stop at Lilly's locker, drop something off, and go to her class afterwards.

"Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty," Miley murmured to herself, counting off the lockers and stopping in front of Lilly's. She twisted the combination lock, stopping on the right numbers and clicking it open. Opening Lilly's locker, she smiled when she saw that the blonde had taped some pictures of them on the door of her locker. Footsteps in the hallway reminded her of her task and she slipped a piece of paper out of her pocket, set it on top of Lilly's books where it could easily be seen, and quickly closed and locked the locker.

She started down the hall, towards the footsteps, but instantly froze when she saw who was walking towards her. Her eyes swept over the spotless shoes, fashionably torn designer jeans, blue and white polo shirt, to the face of Oliver Oaken, whom she hadn't seen in months, other than occasionally on TV. Stopping immediately, she clenched her fists in anger as he looked down at the piece of paper he held in his hands and hiked his book bag higher up on his back. Their eyes met as Oliver looked up from the paper and he stopped walking.

"Miley?" he asked hesitantly, an unsure look crossing slowly over his face.

Fury filled Miley as she saw the uncertainty and hope in his eyes and it was all she could do not to run towards him, tackle him to the ground, and start punching him in the face. He seemed to sense her inner struggle and took a cautious step backwards.

"Look, I know I was a jerk…" he started.

"Wrong thing to say," Miley snarled, taking two angry steps forward before halting abruptly. "I don't even know why you're here, considering that the last time we talked, I told you that I was going to kick your butt all the way to China if I ever saw you again. I meant it, Oliver, and I still do. You hurt Lilly, and when you hurt Lilly, you get me angry."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he squeaked as Miley took a few more menacing steps forward. He tried to hide behind the paper he was holding and, for a moment, Miley caught a glimpse of the old Oliver she used to joke around with. The boy she had schemed with and hid in garbage cans and behind potted plants with to see how Lilly's dates were going before he and Lilly got together. But as Lilly crossed her mind, she was brought back to reality.

"No, you aren't," Miley growled. "But I'm going to make you sorry."

"Please, just hear me out first," he begged.

She hesitated, uncertainty flashing through her mind. "Fine," she said grudgingly. "But you had better make it fast, because I still want to pummel your face into the ground and I have to get to class. I don't want to be any later than I already am just because you're giving a lengthy speech."

"Okay, I'll be quick," he promised, a relieved expression dominating his features. "I know I was a jerk to Lilly, and I have no right to be here right now. None whatsoever. I deserve everything that you want to do to me, and probably more, for breaking Lilly's heart like I did. But I've realized the mistake I made in letting her go. She is the most… I don't even know how to explain it, how to explain _her_. She's breathtaking and intelligent and gorgeous and witty and funny and friendly and a good listener and I just don't know how I let her go like I did."

"And that's the problem," Miley growled, taking another menacing step forward. "You let her go. She trusted you with the most vulnerable part of herself, and you just dropped it because someone gave you a chance that you never thought you would have again. And who knows? Maybe you wouldn't have that chance again. But if you were lucky enough to get a girl like Lilly, you should have never let her go."

"I know, and…."

"No, I don't think you do," Miley interrupted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Do you know what it was like coming back from _America's Top Talent_ and seeing Lilly sit on my porch crying because she thought that she lost her boyfriend? Do you know what it's like to see your best friend get dumped by the guy that she gave her heart to? Do you know what it's like to see your best friend so broken that you don't know what to do to cheer her up?"

Oliver was silent.

"Yeah, I didn't think so," she sneered. "Look, I don't know if you're just here for a short amount of time or to finish out your senior year of high school, but I don't really care at this point. I'm going to walk away from this and spare myself the time it would take to hurt you as bad as you hurt Lilly because I know she wouldn't want me to do that. But if you even look at her, I am going to make sure that you get a whole new definition of the word 'pain.' Am I understood?"

Nodding fiercely in agreement, Oliver took a step back away from Miley. "Yes, ma'am," he murmured, clutching his sheet of paper to his chest.

"Good," she muttered. "And don't think that I won't know if you do bother her." She turned on her heel and stalked away from Oliver, her fists clenched tightly on her side as she struggled not to turn around again and punch the idiotic boy in the face. The bell rang and she ran to the bathroom, knowing that if anyone touched her at that moment she would probably explode and punch something. Or someone.

Punching the wall in the bathroom, Miley snarled as she felt a pain rip through her hand, realizing that it was the same wrist she had broken only months earlier. Cradling the hand against her body, she slowly became conscious of the fact that there was bright red blood staining her skin. She slid down the wall, closing her eyes as tears started to cry softly to herself.

"Miley?"

The brunette looked up to see Lilly standing in the bathroom doorway, a surprised and concerned expression on her face. A moment later, the blonde was kneeling next to her, pulling her hand away from where she was cradling it against her chest and examining it carefully. Lilly softly brushed her fingers over the scrape on her knuckles and Miley hissed through her teeth.

"What happened?" Lilly asked softly.

"Nothing, I'm fine," Miley managed through her tears, roughly wiping at her face with her sleeve.

"Don't lie to me," Lilly warned, her eyes narrowing.

Miley hesitated before looking away from Lilly. "He's back," she murmured.

"Who? Jake?"

"No, Oliver. Oliver's back."

All Miley could hear was the ringing in her ears and the sound of students outside the bathroom door rushing to class before their teachers marked them as late. Lilly's clothes rustled as she stood up slowly and her footsteps echoed in the nearly empty bathroom as she walked away from Miley to the door. There was a moment of silence before Miley heard the lock slide into place on the bathroom door. Miley looked up to see Lilly facing the door, her hand on the doorknob.

"I'm scared, Lilly," Miley whispered.

"Of what?" the blonde asked, turning quickly.

"That he wants you back," Miley murmured, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. "I'm scared that suddenly everything is going to suddenly become clear to you and you're going to realize that Oliver _was_ the one for you after all, even if he did leave you for his career. And that I'm going to have to stand by for the rest of my life as I watch you and Oliver…."

"No," Lilly interrupted, hurrying forward and getting down on her knees in front of Miley. "Nothing, and I mean _nothing_, could ever get me to go back to Oliver. Especially when I have you, Miley."

"But he's famous," Miley muttered. "And I gave up Hannah…."

"Miley, just because he's famous doesn't mean that I love him," Lilly whispered, shaking her head. "And I'm certainly not dating you because you were Hannah Montana. I didn't become friends with you because of that, either. Miley…."

Lilly sighed, running her hands through her hair as she looked up at the ceiling desperately, as if trying to find the answer to an unspoken question written on the ceiling tiles. "How do I explain this?" she asked herself, looking back at Miley, straight into her eyes. "Miley, you are… the most amazing person I have ever met. Sometimes I wonder how I ever managed to get you as a best friend, and now my girlfriend. You… you're so smart and funny, even though sometimes you don't see it…."

"No, Lilly…" Miley whispered.

"And, I mean, you have the most marvelous laugh I've ever heard in my life," Lilly continued. "Whenever I hear it, no matter what mood I'm in, I can't help but be happy because it just digs inside of my soul and cheers me up. And I love the way you sit on the beach, watching me surf because the first time I tried to teach you, you fell off the board and almost drowned. Or the way you watch me when I skateboard because you got scared when I got that huge scratch on my leg, even though it turned into a really awesome scar.

"When I sleep over at your house, sometimes I wake up before you do because I'm so used to going surfing early, and I just look at you, sleeping so peacefully, and wish that I could watch you forever. But there are those times when you have nightmares, and I just want to wake you up, wrap you in my arms, and tell you that's it's okay because I can't stand it when you're being hurt."

"Lilly, please," Miley begged.

"And you're too gorgeous for words," Lilly breathed, taking Miley's face between her hands and rubbing their noses together. "Sometimes I just look at you and wish that I could look even a tad bit like you. And there are so many other things I could say, but I would be going on for years. Most of all, I love you because you aren't afraid to be who you are. Miley, I love you because you're _you_, and you don't try to change that."

Miley gasped, her eyes tearing up when she realized what Lilly said. The blonde just gave her a small smile and kissed her gently before pulling Miley into her arms. The brunette snuggled into Lilly's arms and rested her head on her shoulder, breathing in her scent as she buried her face in the blonde's neck. "I love you, too," she murmured.

"Sometimes I can't wrap my head around how lucky I am," Lilly whispered, rubbing Miley's back comfortingly. "Because sometimes you just do things that astound me. And I could never, ever live without you."

They were both quiet for a long time, just holding each other. Finally, Lilly pulled away and stood up, smiling down at Miley as she extended her hand to help her up. Hoisting the brunette to her feet, Lilly wrapped an arm around her waist and gently wiped her tears away with the edge of her sleeve. "You okay, now?" she whispered.

"Yeah, thanks," Miley whispered, nodding her head and smiling slightly.

"Then we should get to lunch because I'm extremely hungry and if I don't eat now, my stomach is going to growl so loudly in my next class that my teacher will probably throw me out of the room because I'm disrupting his lesson," Lilly joked, getting a laugh out of Miley. The blonde dropped her hand from around Miley's waist and laced their fingers together. "I love you, Miley, and that is never going to change."

"I love you, too, Lilly," Miley whispered, squeezing Lilly's hand gently.

Lilly unlocked the bathroom door and pulled Miley out behind her, pulling her in for a quick kiss before regretfully letting go of her hand and walking down the hallway side-by-side.

* * *

The name-calling started with a simple note in Lilly's locker. Miley always walked Lilly to her locker at the end of the day before they went to one of their houses to do homework. But this time, instead of there being just books in the blonde's locker, there was a note laid on top of her books, much like Miley's, except this one was scrawled in Sharpie on white computer paper.

"What's that?" Miley asked as Lilly picked up the paper and unfolded it, her face draining of all color as she read it. The blonde slowly handed the note to Miley and the brunette murmured it to herself.

"Take your girlfriend back to where you came from."

Miley looked up at Lilly, her eyes wide with realization. Someone knew. Someone _knew_. And it was impossible that someone could have found out because they had been so careful. They rarely went out in public and acted like a couple, never held hands outside their houses, never kissed with someone else in the room or with the windows open, never gave any hint to anyone that they could be together.

That is, until today, only a few hours before.

"Lilly," Miley whispered, dropping the note to the floor and taking a step forward. The blonde only shook her head and took a step back, tears starting to fall rapidly down her face. "Please, Lilly, this… it's all a joke. We'll figure it out."

"No," Lilly whispered, continuing to shake her head as a strangled sob escaped her. Then the blonde turned on her heel and ran down the hall, not bothering to try to avoid other students as she knocked aside the people who were too slow to get out of her way. Once Lilly had disappeared, everyone focused their attention on Miley, who was still standing in front of Lilly's locker, the revealing note at her feet, and a yearning expression on her face as she stared after the blonde.

"What are you looking at?" Miley snapped at the crowd of people, and everyone quickly went back to what they were doing before. The brunette went to Lilly's locker, pulling out the books that she knew the blonde would need. When she was finished, she shut and locked the locker and bent down to pick up the note that had destroyed their world of security.

* * *

Miley stared at that door, biting her lip uncertainly as she contemplated what she should do. The thin piece of wood fixed with a shiny metal piece seemed to taunt her, calling out her name and urging her to reach out and touch it, run her hands along its smooth surface and try to harm it. All she wanted to do was reduce that door to splinters, but she held herself back, closing her eyes as she inhaled slowly through her nose and exhaled slowly out her mouth.

Mrs. Truscott had simply pointed up the stairs when she had opened the door and seen Miley standing on the porch. She saw the pain in the older woman's eyes and knew that Lilly had to have been at least crying when she walked in the front door. Miley's heart ached when she thought of Lilly all alone with no one there to hold her.

So she reached out for the cold metal handle and grasped it tightly, pausing a moment as she clutched the cold doorknob in her sweaty fingers before she slowly turned it. Normally, when the door would have been closed, she would have knocked, but she knew in this instance it was better to catch Lilly by surprise than warn her that she was coming. If Lilly was upset enough, she would try to put a wall up before she talked to Miley so that whatever decision she had made up in her mind would be her final decision.

Lilly was sitting cross-legged on her bed, hands clutched together and resting where her legs crossed each other. The blonde didn't even look up as Miley opened the door and stepped in, when she dropped Lilly's books on the floor, or even when she sat down on the bed behind her. Her face was tilted downwards, her long, blonde hair shielding her face so Miley couldn't see it.

Slowly, Miley reached out her hand and set it gently on Lilly's back, longing to say something but not knowing what would help. She felt Lilly shiver underneath her touch and started to retract her hand, but the blonde quickly turned around and threw herself at the brunette, wrapping her arms tightly around Miley's waist as she buried her face in her chest. Miley felt Lilly start to shake as the sound of Lilly's sobs reached her ears.

"Shhh, it's going to be okay," Miley whispered, rocking Lilly back and forth. "Everything is going to be fine; I promise." She murmured promises and words of comfort in Lilly's ear, hoping that it would be enough to assure Lilly that she was going to do everything within her power to fix the whole situation. At that point, Miley would have flown to the moon and brought it back if it meant that Lilly would feel better.

"Is that even possible?" Lilly mumbled through her dying sobs.

"I don't know," Miley answered quietly, burying her left hand in Lilly's hair and kissing her on the top of the head before resting her chin where she had kissed her. "But if it would make you happy, I would find a way to do it."

At first, Lilly didn't answer. Then she slowly pulled away from Miley, slowly lifting her head and looking into Miley's eyes. "I don't know what I'm going to do," the blonde whispered weakly, tears still leaking down her face, still red and raw from crying. "This… it wasn't supposed to happen this way. We were supposed to have complete control of the whole situation and it was supposed to happen so that everyone, except for maybe Amber, would be happy for us."

The brunette looked down at Lilly, gently wiping away her tears with her thumbs. "My mom used to tell me something when I was little," she whispered, smiling slightly at the blonde in her arms. "Something would go wrong and I would run to her with a skinned knee or a wounded ego, and she would say, 'Miles, I can't always be here for you to help you back up. But one thing I can do is tell you how to deal with stuff like this. Sometimes things will happen that we don't like and we'll cry or we'll stomp our foot and demand that it happens some other way.'"

Miley rested her forehead against Lilly's as she took a deep breath and continued. "Then she would say, 'There will always be skinned knees and hurt feelings, but what we do now won't change what happened in the past. What we do now can affect what will happen in the future. How we react to unexpected situations tells a lot about a person. So stay strong, admit when you're wrong, don't get offended when someone says you aren't right when you really are, and when an especially tough situation comes around, keep your head held high, hold those you love closest to you, and don't be afraid to be who you are.'

"And as much as I would like to cry and stomp my foot about what's happening, Lilly, I know that won't help," Miley whispered. "There are times to cry, there are times to recuperate, and then there are times to stand up to the world and tell it that you are who you are and that you can't be changed. I don't know what your decision is and I'll go with whatever you want to do, but know that I can't fix this situation. I can't change the past, but I can try to make our future a bit better."

Lilly leaned into Miley. "I love you so much," the blonde whispered. "And I don't want to hide this, but I didn't exactly want the whole school knowing right now, either. But as long as I'm with you, I'll be okay. Just… don't leave me alone."

"I won't."

_**To be honest, there isn't a really good explanation for my long absence. I'm not even going to try. I'll update as soon as I can. Thank for the reviews from karleen3863, AlvinFan07, ChronoCrescentFlames, zzCharmedzz1, dcjp, Azula's Flame 1415, Breyton2009, and Sammyby16. You guys are awesome.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


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